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collecting-stories · 4 years ago

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Babe - John B Routledge

Request: Hi, welcome back and I hope everything is going okay with you. I absolutely love all of your stuff and was wondering if you could something with John B and the reader are together and maybe she's having a baby or something and he's protective of her if you're okay with that. If not it's cool and anything fluffy with him is okay. thank you

A/N: Just like fluff...

Outer Banks Masterlist

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

John B had inherited a lot of things from Big John when he died. Some were objects; the house, the twinkie, the furniture, and some weren’t things you could hold in your hand; the way he ran his tongue over his molars when he was thinking, how he always pulled the toast out of the toaster too soon, the color of his eyes.

Something he had most certainly not inherited from his father was the flood of anxiety that settled in his stomach when you found out you were pregnant. Just twenty, the two of you were not the kind of couple that imagined weddings and joint checking accounts and babies. You talked about traveling and the possibility of leaving all the inherited messes of your parents behind. But then you got pregnant and after a million conversations at every conceivable hour you both decided that keeping the baby was something you wanted to do. You had one more year of college and the baby would be born in the summer, allotting you a coincidentally perfect timeline. John B had a good job. The Chateau was paid for and all the things inside were yours now.

All the things outside too, including the chickens.

“I wanted a cat, you know...maybe a dog. Something furry and cute, that I could pet.” You muttered, soaked through your shorts and top, carrying a chicken beneath your arm. Learning how to wrangle a loose chicken had not been something you ever dreamed of doing in your life and having to use that knowledge when you were six months pregnant was far from a dream come true.

You opened the coop, pushing the chicken back in and mentally adding the little building to your list of things that needed to be repaired on the property. The sound of the twinkie pulling in caught your attention as you stood up, turning to see John B already with a frown as he parked and got out of the car.

“You’re supposed to be in bed!” He called, door slamming after him as a punctuation of sorts.

“I was...but your dad’s chickens decided to orchestrate a prison break.” You replied. Big John had become the third member of the household somewhere along the line, an invisible entity that you and John B could blame everything on. If the water heater broke than Big John must not’ve installed it right. If the eletric went out than Big John had wired the house wrong. The chickens escaped and it was Big John who had built a faulty coop.

“I would’ve gotten them,” John B insisted, “you’re soaking wet. You’re going to get a cold.”

“It’s like a million degrees outside Bird, I’m not getting a cold.” You laughed.

“Well what if it was colder out?”

“What if a tornado swept through and I got sucked into it?”

“I’m not joking,” John B said, all the sternness of his dad apparently just waiting to find purpose in him.

The protectiveness was not his father’s though. That was all John B. You had known the Routledge family so long that your mom remembered John B’s. And she had sworn, the first time she watched her future son-in-law, whenever you decided to stop ‘living in sin’, that Big John couldn’t have been bothered if a house fell on his pregnant wife. John B wasn’t like that at all. Attentive, always concerned, the math skills that he had pushed aside to focus on work after his dad died came in handy as he calculated every moment of every year that you would be raising a kid. Knowing that, and because you just couldn’t help yourself, sometimes you teased him.

“What if we have a second kid? We could have them close together.”

“Absolutely not. This place barely qualifies as a two bedroom as it is.” He’d argue, sitting on the kitchen counter eating cereal in the morning while he window shopped for baby furniture on his phone. You’d never seen someone navigate and barter on Facebook better than he did.

“As long as they can fit through the window it qualifies.” You replied.

“No.”

“You’re no fun.”

“I’m trying to bid on this crib...I need complete concentration.” John B replied.

A lot of people who knew the two of you were quick to tell you that you were throwing away your futures. You would never tell any of them but it was something that you and John B had discussed regularly for the first few weeks. Now though, when people saw your young age and your very pregnant state, they felt obligated to weigh in on your life decision as if they were a part of the small family that you and John B were creating together.

“Don’t you think you should have waited?” It seemed the echoed question on everyone’s lips. Shouldn’t you have waited, until you had a better house, more money, were finished college, had a stable job. Maybe, you wanted to answer, probably. But you always just shrugged. It was what it was at think point.

Kiara’s dad was not the first to ask you a resoundingly simple “why John B?”.

“Don’t you want someone responsible?” Was his follow up.

You weren’t sure if it was just ill-worded or if everyone in the Outer Banks had some pre-conceived idea about John B’s ability to be both a parent and an adult but you knew something none of them did.

“I swear to god if you don’t get inside I will carry you,” John B called, standing in the doorway of the Chateau, looking completely exasperated.

“Good luck,” you laughed, standing in the spray of the sprinkler in a bathing suit that made you thankful you didn’t have neighbors too close. It was boiling inside the house and the measly fan that John B had produced while he tried to put the air conditioners in was doing a terrible job of cooling you and your eight month pregnant stomach off.

“I’m not joking,” he came down the stairs two at a time, walking across the lawn to you.

“No!” You laughed, trying to get away from him but failing miserably as he grabbed your arms. “John B! It’s too hot inside!”

“You’re not supposed to be on your feet, at least lay in the hammock.” He rolled his eyes at you, annoyed as ever as he got hit with water from the sprinkler.

“The sprinkler doesn’t reach the hammock.” You pointed out, walking toward the trees as he pushed you along.

“I’ll buy you a pool to sit in.” He promised.

John B was slowly but surely fixing up the entire house, transforming the once crumbling Chateau into something that felt much more like home than it ever had before. Old furniture was being replaced with new, his dad’s office had been cleaned out and the walls had been painted for a nursery. It was only a matter of time before the house that John B had inherited from his father became the place he would raise his own kid. There was no denying that John B had inherited a lot from his father, some good, most bad, but the part of him that checked every door and window before he went to bed, that paid every bill on time and scrounged to save whatever extra he could, the part that had been waiting in anticipation for a baby was not inherited from anyone. That part was all John B.

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autumnleaves1991-blog · 4 years ago

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Day 4: Tweeted- Benny Miller

I have to admit this may be my favorite so far that I have written. I just love Benny so much and how adorable he is.

Check out my November writing challenge masterlist below and let me know if you have any requests for any of the prompts.

November Writing Challenge Masterlist

Day 3: Clarity- Maxwell Lord

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It was a strange thing to tell people when they asked about your boyfriend. Yes, he’s an MMA fighter, ex-special forces, and also an overgrown child.

You met Benny eight months ago at one of his local fights. A blind date set up by your friends started out as dinner with a nice normal doctor and ended up in bed with the entertainment for the night. You still felt sort of bad about how you had ditched the doctor but when you thought of how happy Benny made you it was worth it.

You are sitting in the gym watching Benny train with his brother Will. The Miller brothers were a package deal and luckily Will and you hit it off right away. Will is going through some footage from an old fight while you scroll through your phone on twitter. Since you had begun dating Benny, the world of MMA became a norm in your life. You followed other fighters and coaches on twitter and learned as much as you could. It was at that moment an idea struck you.

“Hey baby...babe....Benny!” you shout getting both men’s attention.

“What do you need, Tiger?” Benny smiles at you.

You roll your eyes, you hate that nickname, one time you had one of your nieces' Daniel Tiger songs in your head and you accidentally sang it out loud...one time. But that’s all it took for him to call you Tiger forever.

“Have you ever thought of getting a twitter account for yourself as a fighter? Not like a personal account but something for press,” the look on his face makes you want to laugh out loud.

“What the fuck is a twit….twitter? Is that some kind of STD?” oh your poor golden retriever and his lack of knowledge at technology.

“No...baby no. It’s a social media account that people get to post about their lives. Lots of other fighters use it to connect with fans, and promote their fights, Will back me up here?” you gesture to the other Miller who looks just or more confused than the former.

“Uhm, I honestly don’t know what the hell you're talking about, my girl just got me a Facebook account like two weeks ago,” Will shrugs at Benny.

You roll your eyes so far you can see the inside of your brain before you tell them, “It would be great Benny, we could make you an account tonight when you come over for dinner and I can show you how it works, just trust me baby.”

“I trust you Tiger, how about you get going home and I’ll pick up the take-out and be there within the hour?” Benny stands before walking over to you pulling you into his arms. You have to look up since he is a solid foot taller than you and he pecks you on the lips before attempting to deepen the kiss. Damn this man is insatiable.

“Alright enough!” Will shouts, breaking the two of you apart abruptly, “Let the woman go Benny we need to finish up with this and then he’s all yours.”

“Oh brother, I already am all hers,” Benny tells his brother loudly before leaning down to your ear and whispering, “and she is all MINE.” You can’t help the shiver that runs up your spine before he puts a wet kiss below your ear and gently pushes you towards the door, slapping your ass on the way out. You wave goodbye to Will and make your way home.

Benny arrives exactly one hour later, two whole pizzas in hand, and a six pack of beer. You had been having pizza a lot more often since the other guys started calling you both monsters for your equal love of pineapple and ham pizza. Over the next three hours you and Benny work on setting up his twitter account.

It’s honestly way more frustrating teaching him than you thought it would be. He asks more questions than a grandpa learning how to use a smartphone. You didn’t know a grown man could ask so many questions and so quickly.

“What are followers? Is this some sort of cult website. Babe, I don’t wanna join a cult.”

“So I click this little round A symbol to tag someone in my tweet? Is this even English?”

“Are hashtags named after hash browns because they look like hash browns...wait do we have any hash browns….baaaabbbeee now I’m hungry!”

You groan before slapping your forehead, watching your big MMA fighter boyfriend dig through the freezer for hash browns. Coming back soon with a pout on his face, having found no hash browns. Damn how can one be so adorable?

“That’s it, I got work in the morning. I promise we can work on this more tomorrow!” You stand from the couch popping your joints as you stretch. Benny comes over to you wrapping you up in a hug. His warm arms wrap around you and he kisses the side of your neck.

“Thank you,” the words are slightly muffled against your skin, “I really appreciate you doing this stuff with me. Supporting me with being a fighter, I promise one day I am going to make you proud of me.”

You pull him back, placing your hands on his face. “I am already so fucking proud of you Benjamin Miller and don’t you ever forget it. Yes, you suck at technology butI promise I don’t love you any less because of it.”

Benny goes quiet and the smile drops from his face… “My little Tiger... you love me?”

Oh shit. That’s not exactly how you imagined telling Benny you loved him but when has anything in your relationship been conventional. You take a deep breath meeting his eyes before you smile, “Of course I love you baby. You are the sweetest, toughest, most badass, old man on the planet and I fucking love you so much.”

Benny’s eyes become glassy before he’s pulling you in for a kiss, and wrapping his arms around you tightly. “I love you too Tiger, so fucking much,” he kisses you again slower this time, “go to bed baby I will clean up out here and join you in a couple minutes.”

You pull away first, exhausted not only physically but emotionally too and you kiss Benny on the lips again gently before walking back towards your room. Benny has his own place with his brother but he’s kind of like a stray dog that followed you home one day and never left. Most of his stuff is at your place anyways, since he sleeps there every night. You pull back the covers and get into the cool sheets, from the nightstand your phone pings.

You pick up the phone and see someone tagged you in a tweet. When you open it your eyes water and you clutch the phone to your chest.

@y/n is the best girlfriend on the planet, AND SHE LOVES ME! I LOVE YOU TO BABE!

You press the like button on the tweet before turning off the light snuggling into the blankets. From the hallway you hear the sounds of Benny’s boots on the floor walking towards the bedroom. He gets ready for bed, and pulls you close to his body, his arms wrapping around your waist pulling you tight to him. Your head rests on his chest.

Just when you're about to fall asleep you feel him tap your shoulder gently, “babe…” he whispers, “I tweeted all by myself.”

You laugh out loud before snuggling to him tighter, “yes you did, I even liked it. And Benny?”

“Yeah Tiger?”

“I love you too.”

Day 5: Holy - Llewyn Davis

#November writing challenge #Benny Miller #Triple Frontier

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thedmo · 3 years ago

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5 Challenges Facing Tomorrow`s Content Marketer

Over the previous few years, content advertising and marketing has confirmed time as well as time once more to be extremely converting and also successful ... if it is done properly. Unfortunately, lots of groups get captured up in the struggles and also challenges along the road that they cannot make significant progress.

In order for material advertising and marketing to make any influence, there are three crucial goals that it need to accomplish:

· generate leads

· provide beneficial content

· build brand awareness

Any obstacles that are standing in the method of achieving these jobs need to be taken head on.

Tomorrow's material online marketers do face fairly a list of challenges, yet that does not suggest their task is difficult. Let's talk about the sector's top five, in addition to remedies to any problems that you and your group might encounter.

1. Making Distinctive Content

The sheer amount of daily web content that is released online is blowing up. All of us know the figures: in simply one min, 400 hours of video clip are published to YouTube, 3 million Facebook messages are shared, and also 3.6 million Google searches are made. Each and every single day, 2.6 million article are published on WordPress alone. This trend is revealing no signs of reducing whatsoever. As time goes on, these numbers will likely be much more remarkable (or intimidating).

With a lot sound being made in regards to contending material, advertising and marketing groups have to find specific ways making their messaging stick out amongst the crowd, leading 44% of advertising teams to agree that ordering their client's interest is more challenging compared to ever.

The finest method to develop unique content that your audience yearns for is by really listening and providing exactly what they want. You need to understand just how your audience is consuming web content, and also which formats as well as subjects they will in fact pay focus to.

According to HubSpot's research study, customers are much extra likely to inspect out videos, social media blog posts, and research material, while blog sites as well as lengthy kind content have a tendency to be skimmed over. Data such as this ought to be taken into account by your groups, especially if they are aiming to broaden their web content repertoire.

Many marketing experts have likewise discovered that examining out online forum conversations associated to their market's specific niche, on areas like Reddit as well as Quora, is one way to find the questions and conversations their target audience is already having.

Comments on blog sites as well as social media sites blog posts are another superb source for content concepts because it reveals you precisely what your visitors are thinking as well as claiming regarding your organisation. See what sort of material spurs conversations as well as address visitor inquiries with genuine understanding in future posts.

The finest method to capture an audience is by using something distinct that they haven't listened to or seen prior to. This is where several online marketers fall short. Whole lots of content that is released is simply a new take on the same old tale, and also very couple of magazines provide anything of value. Your group's web content should matter as well as it ought to offer something they can't locate elsewhere. This could be comprehensive coverage, professional viewpoints, a specific tone, instructional web content spelled out in an easier method, or whatever else your firm concentrates on. The point is that your group locates its specific niche, comprehends its audience, and provides quality over quantity.

2. Providing Personalization

Making your viewers or audiences really feel special is an excellent means to obtain them to convert into a consumer. 75% of consumers are a lot a lot more eager to purchase from a business that uses an experience that is provided precisely to their demands or desires.

Providing individualized content appears to be a substantial obstacle for material marketers, and many are still missing the mark. This job could be rather challenging, specifically for companies with large audience demographics. It will likely require some outside-of-the-box reasoning, yet the incentives are rather remarkable.

Take interactions company O2's tale as an example. They wished to make their online advertisements a lot more details as well as appropriate to audiences that were spread around the nation. They tracked consumer information and created place details ads that included directions to the local O2 shop. Each ad likewise compared with the customer's position along the sales journey with customized offers based upon the client's choices or needs.

The outcomes? 128% higher click prices at virtually half the price each order as previous ads.

Obviously, the key to customization is accessibility to customer data. Consumer accounts have to be tracked for details that can be tied to your content marketing strategy. In order to do this, marketing teams need to not just have the best information collection tools in area, yet they likewise have to recognize ways to tactically utilize it for this purpose.

3. Building Genuine Partnerships

Given the growing convenience of ease of access, producing collaborations with influencers, or other names within a market, is a material fad that will certainly proceed to create as time takes place. Throughout 2017, search queries for "influencer advertising and marketing" enhanced by 325%!

Content advertising is often extremely concentrated on promoting items, services, competence, as well as highlighting various other companies. It can be easy to seem overly-promotional, specifically with the raising popularity of paid influencers who will certainly say anything to obtain a paycheck.

Remember, web content advertising and marketing is everything about brand building, 63% of consumers concur that their assumption of a brand is positively influenced when the firm offers meaningful or valuable web content. Brand name credibility is vital to customers, as well as they are more probable to buy from companies that are transparent as well as honest with them.

To ensure this sort of joint messaging stays genuine, see to it that your business just functions with brand names that relate to your audience. Seeing eye-to-eye, being honest as well as open, and producing material that benefits everybody will communicate a credible message to everybody that can be found in call with it.

If you are working to advertise a product, make sure the partner actually attempts it out, tracks the results, records the experience, and shares truthful reviews. When functioning with influencers, give them a specific degree of innovative flexibility for the material, rather compared to offering them a precise, word-for-word script.

In order for material advertising and marketing to earn a significant perception, the message needs to be authentic, fascinating, and also pertinent. Shateringly apparent self-promotion or paid advertising will switch off many clients that are searching for sincere feedback and also insight. By concentrating on thought leadership, educational material, with simply a scattering of relevant brand mentions, your initiatives will certainly go much additionally with a target market than in-your-face advertising.

4. Accurate ROI Measurement

While numerous things in material advertising adjustment, something has stayed the same: several marketing professionals still have no suggestion ways to properly track their content's ROI. Every year, failing to properly determine results remains on top of the listing of content marketing professionals' largest challenges.

The finest rule of thumb when it comes to ROI measurement is to make use of a mix of tools that give your team with a 360-degree view of the results. Google Analytics is an excellent starting factor, of training course, but if your group is using video clip material and social media sites, better analytical software application can help. Facebook insights as well as Twitter target market analysis offer a far better concept of social results, while tools like Toggl could help to determine video engagement.

While the task of gauging ROI may be difficult, it is definitely necessary if a business is going to get anywhere with this sort of advertising. This is one location where dipping right into the budget plan for more exact monitoring software program or additional logical training may be required, particularly if your team is battling to understand consumer data.

The key is knowing which metrics use when it comes to material, as well as ways to review between the lines for the most pertinent insights.

5. Making Material Relevant to Your Audience

The concept of "audience relevance" and exactly what it implies for your brand is altering by the min. The challenge of meeting this need is one that will always be present.

It is extremely simple for content marketing professionals to obtain bound in the stress of producing content on a constant basis to fit a limited timetable. It could be even easier to lose sight of who you are actually composing for. Each item of material should belong and a purpose in helping customers along the purchaser's journey from beginning to end.

As marketing teams create a growing number of content, it is essential that they continually get to recognize their audience. Consumer targets might alter as time goes on, or as a business gathers extra data. Marketers need to likewise bear in mind that not every piece of web content needs to put on the business's audience as a whole. This false impression can result in bland, general material that gives little to no value or a scattered message with little focus.

First, your team needs to collect precise target market evaluation for targeted content inspiration. Many resort to web site analytics, but sources like social listening, A/B screening, and even analysis of your rival's clients can give much deeper insight.

Once your group gathers the information factors they require, the most effective way to call down on the distinct classifications of consumers is to create precise personalities. Have a look at past customer data and develop a story from the info. Undergo questions like these:

· What do your most important consumers look like?

· Can you create lasting partnerships or is it a one-and-done type of deal?

· How do they usually react to email marketing, long-form web content, or social posts?

Answering these type of inquiries helps your team get involved in the mind of the consumer to identify their preferences as well as priorities.

'Terrific Material' - from Motto to Competence from Rohan Ayyar

Getting as well involved the procedure of pressing out content merely for the sake of checking it off the order of business will help no person. Neglecting your target market is the most convenient way to quit an effective material advertising and marketing approach in its tracks. By defining your exact target market, your advertising group will have the ability to strategize the correct tone, keyword phrases, topics, as well as systems that will do ideal with various segments.

In Conclusion

Content marketing has plenty of challenges. Besides discussing its effectiveness, marketers enjoy to discuss simply exactly how challenging this approach could be. Each distinct trouble additionally comes with unique services. This kind of advertising and marketing is not easy, however with some research, effort, and vital thinking, your team could get over any type of challenge along the way.

source: 5 Challenges Facing Tomorrow`s Content Marketer

#business

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jewish-privilege · 6 years ago

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...In 2017, three Jewish attendees at the Chicago Dyke March were asked to leave after displaying a rainbow flag with a Star of David on it. In the surrounding arguments about what exactly happened, multiple leftist groups framed this debate not about visibly Jewish queer people existing without being quizzed about Israel and Zionism, but about “pinkwashing” at Pride events. Pinkwashing broadly describes how corporations will attempt to appeal to the LGBTQ community while simultaneously harming the community through its business practices. But in this specific context, pinkwashing refers to the belief that Israel only enacts LGBTQ-friendly policies in order to draw attention away from its treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

In an essay published by the Black Rock Anarchist Collective in defense of the Chicago Dyke March’s actions, one writer stated, “Just to make myself clear: if you are a Zionist, if Palestinians make you feel uncomfortable, or if you work for a horrible, violent, pinkwashing organization, go fuck yourself, and go fuck yourself somewhere other than Dyke March. Just because a space allows you to attend does not mean that the space is FOR you, and to assume that you have a right to come and make people feel unsafe in their own spaces just because you want to be visible in public is the HEIGHT of privilege, White fragility, Jewish feelings, and general fuckery.”

...Honestly, everything about the pinkwashing debate is infuriating, and everyone involved needs to stop, drink a juice box, and take a nap. We need to remember that Pride celebrations, even in their most cringe-worthy corporate form, whether they are in the U.S. or Israel, are a net positive. Claiming that there is something inherently sinister about LGBTQ people having a slightly less miserable time in Israel are dressing homophobia, transphobia, and anti-Semitism in faux social justice language.

At the same time, we need to address the fact that Israel has a myriad host of issues when it comes to treating LGBTQ people with respect and dignity. Same-sex couples still cannot get married in Israel, because marriage is controlled by the Chief Rabbinate and there is no civil marriage. In 2015, an ultra-Orthodox extremist stabbed five people at the Jerusalem Pride parade, killing one. A far-right Israeli NGO put up homophobic billboards in Jerusalem right before their Pride celebration, and a man with a concealed knife was arrested at this year’s Pride parade.

Queer Palestinians in the diaspora should be able to discuss their problems with Israeli government policies and military actions without being told to “spend some time in Gaza and see how you like it.” Likewise, queer Jewish people like myself should be able to talk about the treatment of LGBTQ people in Israel without having to engage in a three-hour discussion of Israeli politics. I’m not exaggerating: I made one offhand comment about Israel at a Thanksgiving potluck once and got tied up in an argument that lasted until midnight.

I wonder if some of this bad discourse is because of how the Israel-Palestinian conflict is treated in leftist spaces. The conflict is frequently treated as an afterthought (a la “Oh, we need to sound woke, p.s. Free Palestine I guess”). If we actually wanted to incorporate justice for Palestinians in a meaningful way into the LGBTQ movement, that would require recognizing how Jews and Palestinians are closely related groups, both with historic ties to the Levant. It would also mean holding bad actors on all sides accountable for their actions and having difficult conversations about Israel and Zionism. But that requires hard work and coalition building, and many would rather harass Jewish proprietors of community organizing spaces or kick Jewish people out of LGBTQ spaces altogether.

One reason this argument is so exhausting is that it happens every single year. Every June, the discourse about pinkwashing is trotted out, and every year, leftist queer events make it clear that they will be policing people’s Jewish identities. This has most recently been seen with the Washington D.C. Dyke March, whose organizers sent a Facebook message to a Jewish woman saying marchers could wear “Jewish stars and other identifications and celebrations of Jewishness (yarmulkes, talit, other expressions of Judaism or Jewishness)” but it would not permit “pro-Israel paraphernalia” at the march. In comments to the Washington Post, one Jewish organizer Yael Horowitz didn’t clarify if rainbow flags with the Star of David violated the event’s policies, but did state that Palestinian flags were permitted. A joint statement from Zioness Movement, A Wider Bridge, and the JCRC of Greater Washington condemned the D.C. Dyke March and demanded that they apologize and allow Jewish marchers be able to march “as their full authentic selves.”

I find this kind of mixed messaging infuriating. Queer events should not be dictating to Jewish people about which expressions of our faith and culture are acceptable. Leftists need to stop playing this game where some forms of nationalism are praised while others are condemned. American, Israeli, and Palestinian nationalism all have toxic elements because nationalism is an inherently toxic concept. Also, I don’t trust organizers to be able to tell the difference between being proud to be Jewish and Israeli nationalism. I have a denim vest that I wear to all activist events that says עם ישראל חי (Am Yisrael Chai, or “The Jewish people live on”) and a patch of the flag of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Would I be asked to leave, or quizzed about Zionism and Israel, to prove that I’m one of the “good ones” if I wore it to the Chicago or D.C. Dyke March?

I want to be able to spend this month being proudly Jewish and proudly queer, but pinkwashing debates make me have to choose between the two. We need to stop making LGBTQ Jewish people pick from a false binary, and instead welcome to join all other LGBTQ people in the collective struggle for queer and trans liberation.

#antisemitism #homophobia #lgbtq jews

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kerbaldevteam · 6 years ago

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KSP Loading... Breaking Ground under the spotlight!

Welcome to our official newsletter, KSP Loading…! Do you want to learn about all the current developments of KSP? Here’s the place to be, so let’s get started!

Breaking Ground Expansion

With the release of the Kerbal Space Program: Breaking Ground Expansion just around the corner, our team is working very hard to wrap up the final details for this exciting DLC. We also thought this would be a good opportunity to dive into a little bit more depth and give you a better idea of what you can expect in Breaking Ground.

As we mentioned previously, this DLC is all about exploration, experimentation and technological breakthroughs. We want to give you more reasons to explore Kerbin’s solar system, more things to do while you’re on a celestial body and exciting new robotics parts that add a whole new level of complexity allowing you to build even more incredible crafts.

Deployed Science

This feature will allow you to deploy experiments on the surface of celestial bodies to take measurements over time. You will need to bring these experiments with you, unpack them from storage containers on your craft and set them up to run. In order to do so you will need to place a central station, one or more power generating devices and possibly a booster antenna to get your science base set up. The experiments and power generators will run better if the right kind of Kerbal sets them up, thus giving you more reasons to bring Kerbals with different professions on an adventure.

We wanted to broaden the possibilities for future development, adding a time-based mechanic with deployed science, which also introduces inventory into stock KSP. - Paul Boyle, Lead Designer

Let’s look at the equipment available for Deployed Science:

Probodobodyne Experiment Control Station

This part is crucial if you want to generate any useful data. Acting as the hub for all other experiments, the Experiment Control Station will distribute and control both power and data from nearby deployed parts, as well as coordinate the transmission of science back to Kerbin.

Mini-NUK-PD Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator

No science base will run without power, and the Mini-NUK-PD Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator will provide plenty of power to run a central station and deployed science experiments. If deployed by an engineer it will more efficient, if they are a high level one then even more.

OX-Stat-PD Photovoltaic Panel

An alternative power generator is the OX-Stat-PD Photovoltaic Panel, which will also be more efficient when properly set up by a trained engineer.

Communotron Ground HG-48

Although the Experiment Control Station has its own data transmission device, if you’re on a faraway planet, you might need to bring the Communotron Ground HG-48 antenna with you to boost the signal of your deployed science base.

Go-ob ED Monitor

The Goo Observation: Extended Duration Monitor watches the always enigmatic Mystery Goo for a long period of time on a planetary body. As with all the other deployed science experiments, the data collection speed will be increased when placed by a scientist, especially a ranked-up scientist.

PD-3 Weather Analyzer

This multi-function experiment gathers data on wind, pressure, temperature and humidity to generate a picture of the planet’s climate model over time. Naturally it will only function on a planet with an atmosphere.

Ionographer PD-22

This experiment allows Kerbals to analyze different particles and radiation incident on planetary bodies with no atmosphere.

Grand Slam Passive Seismometer

Unlike other experiments, the Grand Slam Passive Seismometer only operates under one condition… when controlled seismic events are created by crashing something into a planet. In addition to the excitement and fun of smashing things, you’ll collect data instantaneously with this device.

Click here to see all images of the Deployed Science experiments in high-res.

Surface Features

Surface features add a new component to the exploration of planets and satellites in the KSP solar system. These are items of scientific interest scattered across all celestial bodies. These features include meteorites, craters, mineral formations, and even stranger planetary oddities. Surface features vary in size and Kerbal astronauts will be able to pick up and return the smallest of them for study back at KSC. However, larger ones will need to be scanned and analyzed on-site by the newly developed Rover Arms.

Exploring celestial bodies and using rovers has never had as much value as we would have liked, and while the real Opportunity is now quietly resting on Mars, we wanted to give the players the opportunity to do more valuable science driving across Duna (and the other bodies) in KSP. So we added interesting new features to the surface of the planets that can be explored and have experiments performed on them. - Jamie Leighton, Lead Developer

Rover Arms

These parts are used to gather scientific data from surface features. The Rover Arms come in three levels that you unlock via Research and Development, each of which has more sensors and tools that allow you to collect more science from the same surface feature. Only the largest Rover Arm has the full suite of scientific instruments, so you might want to unlock that one as soon as possible!

Click here to see all these and a couple more images of Surface Features and the Rover Arm in high-res.

Robotics

With Breaking Ground, you will see four types of robotic parts - hinges, pistons, rotors and rotational servos. Available in a range of shapes and sizes these new parts operate under realistic physics, with real forces and torques, electricity consumption and even motor mass accounted for. We are also including a controller part that will let you coordinate the behavior of many different parts on your craft.

Giving our community the ability to build even more complex creations might seem like a strange idea for anyone familiar with KSP, but it is something the whole team is passionate about. I’m really looking forward to seeing what people can make and animate with the new parts and controller combination. - David Tregoning, Lead Developer

Hinges

Hinges will give you a limited angle of rotation between two parts. Perfect to create jointed machines for example.

Piston

The pistons give you linear motion. If set up right, they will allow you to create all sorts of craft with hydraulic-like mechanisms.

Rotor

Not much to explain about the rotor, it will allow you to generate torque around its axis. Maybe you’ll build a spinning space station or ferris wheel with this, or any other rotational contraption you can think of.

Rotational servo

The Rotational servo will give you precise control of angular position. Using proportional control, servos have unlimited potential to create all sorts of inventions, where you want to have precise control of the position of certain parts.

KAL Controller

The KAL-1000 controller can sequence the actions of all the robotics parts, and a number of other fields. Its gives you access to a powerful track editor tool to let you set up how parts will behave over time. Using the controller, you can set up complex cranes, walking craft, disco lighting or whatever your heart desires.

Click here to see the Robotic Parts images in high-res.

The New Suit

This futuristic-looking suit was designed to match the spirit of Breaking Ground. It not only looks great on Kerbals, but its seams glow in the dark when you turn on the helmet lights!

For the spacesuit we tried a few options based on existing concepts from real life space programs, but some of those looked too slim or too sci-fi-ish. We also tried different helmets, but something felt weird about the shapes, and as the Kerbal helmet is iconic, we kept the classic shape when designing a new one. Apart from the design, we wanted to give the suit something that the others don't have: An emissive light at the seams, something that comes in handy to help find your Kerbals when they are far from the sun or on the dark side of a planet! At first, we thought skinning the accordion arms would be problematic, but we managed to do it, and we are pretty happy with the result. We hope you like it as much as we do! - Rafael Gonzalez, Lead Artist

Click here to see the Suits in high-res.

Additions to the base game

With the release of Breaking Ground, the base game is also getting some updates that will add a few new features.

For starters, the inventory mechanic that is used by deployed science will be available in the base code, for modders to use and extend as they wish.

Additionally, we're adding two extensions to our action group system. The first one adds another type of action group for controls that let you bind input controls to fields - an axis group. The second adds Action Sets, which allow you to enable or disable sets of axis or action groups.

This extends what you can do with a limited number of keys, letting you put your craft into different modes of operation. You can even override the base controls with the action set feature, further fine tuning the interface between you and your craft. We developed these extensions to give players more options to control their robotics, but it certainly will be useful for stock and modded players as well.

Finally, we’ve added EVA portraits, so that you can check data on your Kerbals even when they’re out and about.

Remember, you can share and download crafts and missions on Curse, KerbalX, the KSP Forum and the KSP Steam Workshop.

That’s it for this edition. Be sure to join us on our official forums, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Stay tuned for more exciting and upcoming news and development updates!

Happy launchings!

#Kerbal Space Program #KSP Loading...#breaking ground expansion #DLC #preview #ksp #KSP Loading #newsletter #ksp weekly #devnotes

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themiddlelayer · 5 years ago

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Just more Bitching

It’s not like my life is all that bad at all... things are generally awesome but I had another rough day yesterday. And there’s my job thing. And the unknown about whether or not Tampa got the job back in Florida... blah, blah, blah...

I’ve got about 45 minutes until I’m off work for the night. I’ve done a little bit of actual work today but in general have been super low on ‘fucks to give’ around here. My boss is out of the country another couple days so the upside is that I don’t have the impending fear that she’ll call me for no apparent reason. I had a conversation with another co-worker who said that the morale is in the toilet everywhere and that she was told by another department director there were more ‘big changes’ coming. You know it’s bad when fellow work-from-home team members are sensing the low morale and lack of direction we’re all feeling.

Yesterday I got up early to try and get some schoolwork done while Tampa slept in a little. While sipping my coffee I did the usual checking e-mails and facebook and ended up logging into the site where the joint bank account with MM is at. It’s only technically ‘joint’ because we haven’t done paperwork to remove me, though. And I didn’t mean to snoop but when I opened it up to check my credit score tracker the ‘overview’ had a ridiculously high account balance so I went through the details.

Now, MM’s life and money aren’t my business and I like it that way, except that he’s asked for more than just the bills I’m taking out of the marriage in order to cover a gap in household expenses. He’s basically been whining that without my income he’ll have to decide which bills not to pay in the coming months.

That said, imagine my rage when I saw two deposits for nearly $10K that came in this week. Plus a deposit on the 1st of the month for roughly what the deficit in finances (aka what he would ask for as rent) from the chick he brought to Cookie’s wedding. Oh, and the multiple $100+ dinners including 2 at the Brazilian steakhouse and a hotel in VEGAS. Fucker was bitching about money and instead of using some of it to cover the gap in expenses and, you know, living within his means, he has continued to spend like crazy and live like a rockstar.

I took about an hour to cool off and do some schoolwork before initiating a conversation with him. It turned out that the big deposits were refunded interest from 2 credit cards who retroactively reduced the rate to the ‘military rate.’ The deposit from his GF was ‘her half’ of the Vegas trip. Now, she paid it on the 1st of the month but they didn’t go until the 8th... and if $455 was her HALF, what the fuck else did he do in Vegas that he put on his personal credit card?!?

In the end, we agreed to get a legal separation agreement in place that will be effective the 1st of the year. This will make his money officially no longer my business, which is a huge relief. But the emotional fallout took its toll on my day for sure.

Tampa saw me before I talked to MM and then I updated him after I got out of my office. He was nothing but supportive and loving (as usual) but it brought up my insecurity over being financially dependant on him like I am. He’s continued to say that we can talk about money once things have settled down for me and in the meantime I’ve taken responsibility for the bulk of the housework and I buy almost all the groceries. It’s a good arrangement for us both, but it still puts me in a position where, if Goddess forbid, something happened between us I’d have to rearrange my life again with an income that *might* get me into a shitty little apartment here in Arizona. The possibility of moving back to Florida with him just adds another unknown on that front, too.

The rest of our weekend was great, though. We went to sushi then I made cinnamon toast crunch bars (think rice crispy treats) with a couple medicinal snickerdoodles ground up and mixed in. I hadn’t made anything like these in awhile and they ended up looking, as Tampa’s buddy said, “Like jizz covered cheese-its.” And that was before we dealt with removing the wax paper backing. Next time, buttered parchment paper! Whoops!

It turned out that the snickerdoodles made for a different kind of treat that left me feeling relaxed and happy but not stupid and hungry. Win! Oh, and I may have had a couple more bites of them this afternoon... I feel focused and able to concentrate but I want another one because they were so yummy. New rule: any medicinal treats need virgin versions made at the same time!

Tampa had to go out of town for work this week so he won’t be back until late Wednesday or early Thursday. I’m hoping to get myself back on track with getting up at a reasonable hour while he’s away so I can get up and get motivated on my schoolwork and work work.

Tonight’s project is to take pics of all my ‘fat clothes’ so I can sell them. I’ve gone through the bags and donated a bunch already but I’ve got some really nice dresses and bras that were barely worn as well as a bunch of jeans and nice work slacks. I’ve got to get myself a buffer going for next month when I have to get my own car insurance and register my car in my name.

Tick tock... one of these days I’d like to have a job where I don’t start counting down to the weekend on Monday.

#bitching #divorce #money stuff #life is good

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komalrazaq · 3 years ago

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PLASTIC SURGERY, TO TELL OR NOT TO TELL…

In its outset, corrective medical procedure was acted in the mystery of little workplaces and under here and there not so great settings. Today, restorative medical procedure more normal and is out in the open. Unscripted tv including Plastic medical procedure is convincing and well known. Online media is loaded up with prior and then afterward photographs and live gushing of life in the realm of Plastic medical procedure. We at Cosmetic Surgery Baltimore are seeing a few patients being more open with regards to numerous strategies. For instance, Breast expansion and stomach tucks AKA "mother makeovers" are invited after pregnancy and tummy tuck treatment in Islamabad

There is no disgrace in reshaping your picture and reestablishing your confidence. Numerous patients need to effectively upgrade or support their certainty as well as to reflect how they feel. For a large number of our restorative patients, it's difficult for them to take a gander at consistently at a face or body they at this point don't perceive. The choice to have Cosmetic medical procedure is a profoundly close to home decision that patients make after a careful meeting. Most patients before medical procedure stay extremely private with regards to their choice to have a medical procedure. A short time later, when they are so content with their outcomes, they become diplomats in alluding their loved ones

For those of you hoping to avoid the inquiries here are a couple of instances of a portion of the fanciful stories and reasons we hear at Cosmetic Surgery Baltimore:

Non-surgeries (filler infusions) = Dental techniques like insight teeth, gum a medical procedure and dental inserts can cause comparable enlarging and swelling. Klutzy pardons like incidentally hitting your face with an entryway, or falling at home have been utilized with progress.

Stomach fold = Fixing a hernia or any GYN medical procedure are great ones. Having "female medical procedure" is incredible in light of the fact that couple of companions or working environments will "go there" to ask for more data! What's more, coincidentally, assuming you are a lady having a belly fold you are having female medical procedure so there's not a remotely good excuse to feel remorseful!

Rhinoplasty (Nose Job) = Fixing a digressed septum and having sinus medical procedure are well known reasons and have a similar recuperation as a rhinoplasty.

Liposuction = Any kind of minor athletic injury, similar to a muscle strain, sprain or wind can generally put you down and out for one to about fourteen days

Bosom a medical procedure = Muscular and joint reasons like a shoulder injury, pulled muscle and neck strain work incredible and can give you the reason you are searching for when you can't lift a lot of just after medical procedure!

Facial medical procedure (facelift, eyelid medical procedure) = Just say that you had upper eyelid medical procedure since it was influencing your vision. It worked for your mom! Having a "little neck fixing" is by all accounts a for the most part acknowledged a medical procedure in any event, when you are truly having a full facelift.

Share Your Experience Proudly:

Numerous patients are mindful so as to stay quiet about their touch-ups, others gladly wear their careful tape on their sleeves and even chronical their plastic medical procedure venture via web-based media, or make open care groups. I get a great deal of references from patients that common their experience on Instagram and Facebook which I am excited to see. I love the delightful way web-based media can unite individuals and help demystify and destigmatize plastic medical procedure.

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swelldomains · 7 years ago

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5 Challenges Facing Tomorrow`s Content Marketer

In order for material advertising and marketing to make any influence, there are three crucial goals that it need to accomplish:

generate leads

provide beneficial content

build brand awareness

Any obstacles that are standing in the method of achieving these jobs need to be taken head on.

1. Making Distinctive Content

2. Providing Personalization

The outcomes? 128% higher click prices at virtually half the price each order as previous ads.

3. Building Genuine Partnerships

4. Accurate ROI Measurement

The key is knowing which metrics use when it comes to material, as well as ways to review between the lines for the most pertinent insights.

5. Making Material Relevant to Your Audience

The concept of "audience relevance" and exactly what it implies for your brand is altering by the min. The challenge of meeting this need is one that will always be present.

What do your most important consumers look like?

Can you create lasting partnerships or is it a one-and-done type of deal?

How do they usually react to email marketing, long-form web content, or social posts?

Answering these type of inquiries helps your team get involved in the mind of the consumer to identify their preferences as well as priorities.

'Terrific Material' - from Motto to Competence from Rohan Ayyar

In Conclusion

#business #business plan #internet marketing #marketing #marketing companies #marketing consultant #marketing strategy #online marketing #social media #social media blog #social media management #social media sites #social media strategy

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badassbride · 3 years ago

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Ashley & Stephen’s Punk Aesthetic Toronto wedding

COUPLE NAMES: Ashley & Stephen

COUPLE’S INSTAGRAM NAMES: @my_aching_bones @steve_mcgill

WEDDING DATE: October 13th 2019

WEDDING LOCATION: Toronto, ON

HOW AND WHERE DID YOU MEET:

Steve is a live music photographer, and I had a band at the time. My band was playing a show in Toronto and Steve happened to be photographing the show. After the show, he briefly introduced himself, and the next day the shots were up on Facebook with the caption “I only support pop punk when there are cute girls involved”. We started hanging out, and the rest is history!

WEDDING THEME: Punk Aesthetic

THE WEDDING DAY:

It was a whirlwind of love, good food and great music. We went through a stressful year of planning in order to have the wedding of our dreams and in the words of my best friend we “more than killed it, we backed it into reverse and f***ing pulverized it.” and all I can say is that it was completely worth it.

BADASS WEDDING ATTIRE: BRIDE

@my_aching_bones In a @watters dress with a crystal beaded bodice and a plunging neckline, the skirt has a moody moscato underlay. The tailored evening coat is an off white crepe, with black and silver spiked epaulets. black velvet choker and fingerless opera gloves, made by the mother of the bride. Fishnets Bejeweled ankle boots and leopard kitten heels by @aldo_shoes

BADASS WEDDING ATTIRE: GROOM

@steve_mcgill In a @josephabboud plaid black on black suit with @fluevog shoes

WEDDING BUDGET: $25,000

HOW MANY PEOPLE ATTENDED: 160

PHOTOGRAPHER: Lauren @laurengarbuttphotography

HAIR / MAKE UP: Hair by Ally @thecovehairsalon Makeup by @jenevoymakeupstudio

DID YOU DO FOOD AND IF SO WHAT:

We had a delicious vegetarian 4 course meal.

Appetizers:

Mushroom pidè Veggie Bao Corn tacos Mac n cheese bites

1) heirloom beer salad with arugula and a goat cheese whip. 2) Wild mushroom soup with croutons 3) Butternut squash agnolotti with brown butter sage sauce, and pumpkin tempura. 4) Raspberry Pistachio tart

Snacks:

Auntie Anne’s Soft Pretzels with mustard and cheese dips

Krispy Kreme donuts

North of Brooklyn Pizza

WHAT DID THE BRIDESMAIDS/MEN WEAR:

Bridesmaids wore a floor length black dress with a plunging neckline, high slits and a translucent overlay with a delicate, gothic inspired velvet appliqué pattern. The shoes were leopard print pumps with a black bow.

Bridesmen and groomswomen wore a black suit with a leopard print bow tie.

Groomsmen wore a black suit with a leopard print tie and a black glitter pocket square.

ANY TIPS ON GUESTS:

People talk. That’s what they do. Somebody is going to find something bad to say about your day; don’t let that in your head. People’s opinions of you and your day are

A) worthless and B) none of your business.

ANY AWESOME BUDGET SAVING IDEAS:

If you have friends with skills, ask them if they’d be willing to do things for you. We asked our friends to MC and DJ. We asked our talented photographer friend to take our photos. I know a lot of designers so I asked my one designer friend to make my robes and wedding coat, and another designer friend did the alterations for my bridal party.

If you know how to sew or know someone who does, why not put it to good use? I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted as far as table runners go, so I made them. It comes in handy when you want something specific and you’re having a hard time finding it.

ANY TIPS ON GIFT IDEAS:

Just ask for money, period. Especially if you already live together, because It’s really the only way to get exactly what you want. If you don’t live together, register for the shower, but disable the registry after the shower, and make a note on your website that you’d prefer a monetary gift to help fund your future together, or honeymoon.

DID YOU DO WEDDING FAVOURS:

We did little honey jars, but only because it’s a nice gesture as we had a bunch of people from afar fly in. If you don’t have people coming from further away, I think favours are a little dated.

TIPS FOR FUTURE BADASS BRIDES:

1) No matter what anyone tells you, this day is about you and your love. People will try to say “it’s about the guests”, stand your ground, because while you definitely want to make sure everyone has a good time, ultimately your main goal is to express yourselves and represent your love in a way that is true to you.

2) keep your wedding parties relatively small, and take your time to choose them carefully, if you choose to have them at all.

3) You absolutely CAN get creative with your choice of venue, just requires research and asking awkward questions. You’ll find that more often than not, people are more than willing to help you out in the name of love.

4) create a separate email address for wedding planning. Makes things so much easier and more organized.

5) create your joint bank account WELL in advance to the wedding, as a courtesy to those giving you cheques as a gift.

6) You’re going to have a stressful time planning your wedding, especially if you choose to do things differently like we did. it’ll be a test of every relationship in your life, including your relationship with each other. My advice to you is this: take extra measures to be kind to yourself, delegate to your partner, and don’t be afraid to ask for help (but be very careful who you ask as weddings can bring out sides in family and loved ones, even in yourself that you’ve never seen), so for the love of god hire a wedding planner!

EXTRA INFO:

Venue 1: Story’s building Venue 2: Horseshoe Tavern

Planning by @pseventsgroup

Flowers by @coriandergirl

Jacket & Robes by @elissacontino @coralfitapparel

Dress bought at @avenue22bridal

Bridesmaid Alterations by @evellyon_atelier

Officiant @avril_ewing_officiant

Love

Ashley & Stephen

xxx

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over50business · 4 years ago

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Safe Island Thinking Can Save Your Business

From my new book, FIFTEEN CRITICAL INSIGHTS FOR BUSINESS OWNERS OVER FIFTY, an advanced thinking process that can save your business. Less ego, more bank account. Chances are, you've heard of innovative thinking, or strategic thinking, or holistic thinking. But what do clinical psychologists mean by Safe Island Thinking? Safe Island thinking is a highly complex approach to peaceful coexistence between potential rivals through the use of compromise, sharing, empowerment, facilitation, and/or alliances. In many ways, this approach is the exact opposite of Reductionist thinking, as it seeks to pacify rather than conquer, and share rather than hoard.

Safe Island Thinking

Imagine being on a tropical island with everything you wanted ... ten wives (Solomon had 700 wives, but we won’t be greedy), exotic gardens and fruit trees, crystal spring water, herds of cattle and horses, rooms stocked with electronic gadgets, and ancient silver and gold mines with limitless, untapped veins of ore. Still, you have one problem. There are three other islands in the area, all with substantially fewer resources than yours. Some populations are barely subsisting with intermittent periods of famine and starvation. Increasingly, the other islanders have begun to raid your island by night, stealing food, livestock, and precious minerals, even kidnapping a couple of your wives (luckily, the two nagging wives with perpetual honey-do lists). The more the word spreads about your prosperity, the more invasions you experience, the more property losses you suffer. (Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés kept hearing about the gold and riches of

the Aztec Empire and eventually overthrew them.) Word gets around. Your initial reaction might be to build up your defenses; hire mercenary soldiers to guard the coastline, and perhaps, build a wall. But, within the context of Safe Island thinking, these solutions are both shortsighted and hypocritical in addressing the real problem. The real problem is the clash between wealth and poverty, the haves versus the have-nots. In the distance, starving islanders see you eating steak and lobster. They become desperate, resentful, and demand a piece of the action ... by any means necessary. Thousands of years of history, hundreds of books on theocracy, modern clinical research, and personal profiles of successful individuals express the same sentiment. Predominantly, almost without exception, people living prosperously feel no innate obligation to share. Whether earned through inheritance, unscrupulous dealings, or years of sacrifice and hard work, it’s THEIR PROPERTY. They resent the idea of someone coming along, expecting a free ride. Safe Island thinking seeks to bridge the gap through compromise and pacification. Rather than building a wall to keep out invaders (at least, temporarily, as they will eventually find a way over it or under it or around it), Safe Island thinking tries to resolve the problem by eliminating the reason invaders want to come in the first place. The objective is to take away the incentive.

Brace yourself. Your subconscious mind is about to scream in agony. To the dismay of many Americans, the United States has been employing Safe Island thinking for many years, sending billions in foreign aid to places like Mexico, Haiti, Central America, Africa, and Russia (yes, Russia), and signing trade agreements such as NAFTA to give regional poor countries a boost. Back in the 60s and 70s, when the United States was on the verge of a race war, the U.S. government used policies grounded in Safe Island thinking (Affirmative Action, Job Corps, and free college grants and tuition) to get angry black protesters off the streets and into the workforce. For potential protesters involved in the fight for equality, the stakes (historic, unprecedented employment offers) became too high to get involved in daily marches or join the Black Panther Party on the front lines. You had to choose between social activism and your new role as the first black face in Exxon’s accounting department, making $80,000 a year, and planning a family trip to Disneyland. It was personal risk/reward assessment at its most basic tier.

Historians agree these sophisticated Safe Island strategies were not only instrumental in averting another civil war, but, as an unexpected payoff , brought an invaluable source of diversity to corporate America, allowing U.S. companies to compete more vigorously in the global market. As far back as the end of World War II, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin used Safe Island thinking to carve up the world into three domains, with each leader agreeing NOT to interfere in the affairs of the other leader’s territory. Churchill could colonize countries rich in minerals like Palestine, South Africa, India, and Cameroon. Russia could crush independence movements and annex eastern countries like Albania, Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. Roosevelt would get help from Russia to fight the Japanese whose ancient Samurai, fight-to-the-death culture did not embrace surrender of any kind, and have (defeated) Germany split into zones favorable to the U.S.

During the early years immediately after the War, the United States spent billions (trillions in today’s dollars) frantically rebuilding England, Germany, and Japan, even Russia, to a smaller degree. With the massive influx of immigrants trying to enter the U.S., Safe Island thinking was an easy sell to American taxpayers. “Let’s get these war-torn countries rebuilt and in order so their people won’t come here, flood the workforce, and drive our own economy into the ground.”

In this instance, the overriding objective of compromise and pacification was summed up in one word ... treaty. In corporate America, however, managers refer to the same type of arrangement as an ... alliance contract. As a new business owner, unless you understand the value of these contracts, you will forever find yourself building walls and fi ghting unnecessary wars. In 2004, sworn competitors Samsung Electronics and Sony signed an agreement to split the cost of research and development to build flat-screen LED televisions. In 2013, Ford and Toyota formed an alliance to jointly design a new futuristic hybrid vehicle. Apple and Microsoft formulated an alliance to design a mobile operating system. Amazon (Kindle) and Apple (iPad) forged an agreement to allow the distribution of Amazon e-books through an iPad/Kindle app. Safe Island thinking requires a conscious and deliberate detachment from ego-driven outcomes. Force (to contend with bad actors) is still on the table, but viewed as a last resort. The whole idea is to have potential adversaries so intrigued with the benefits of their own island, they have neither the time nor desire to invade yours. Admittedly, Safe Island thinking has become a much harder sell. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy used it to find his way out of a nuclear standoff with the Russians. This approach totally inflamed his Joint Chiefs and military advisors who saw no other viable solution except to go to war. Safe Island thinking is similar to a chess move that voluntarily relinquishes short-term power for a long-term gain. However, within our human evolution, is an overriding instinct to conquer rather than compromise.

Passively working out a deal that benefits both parties just doesn’t FEEL the same, nothing to facilitate a round of cold beers for the heroes and a victorious slap across the back. Our subconscious will remind us that to the victor go the spoils ... all of them, including the right to dictate the terms, and punish the opponents who had the audacity to challenge us. So many new business owners go under, choosing the hard road instead of the smart road. Don’t allow your “them vs us” ego to drive you out of business. Keep up your guard. But remember. Sometimes building a bridge can be far more profitable than building a wall. -Leander Jackie Grogan - (Join the Over-50 Entrepreneur Master Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1087477241691912 Let's GO!!! I GOTTA TO SHARE THIS ONE... Share this...

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#corporatealliances #personalitytype #SafeIslandThinking

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surveysonfleek · 7 years ago

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939.

You’re at least a little bit cold right now. You would decline if the last person you kissed proposed to you. You’ve shaved your legs in the past 24 hours. The last person you called knows your parents. ‘I love you’ was said in your last relationship. Your best friend is in love. There is food in your room right now. Your friends like your current bf/gf/crush. You always forget to put your seatbelt on. You text the person you like. Your birthday is past the 10th of its month. You’ve had a bf/gf forget your birthday. Chicken soup really does make you feel better when you’re sick. You celebrated the one month in your last relationship. Your best friend has had their heart broken recently.

You usually eat supper with your family. You’ve fallen for a friends’ bf/gf before. You’d rather eat fries over salad. You’re a really good gift buyer. You’ve had a cat/dog who had kittens/puppies. You accept every friend request whether you know them or not. You can’t sleep without a blanket. You need very particular conditions to sleep. You’d be comfortable going to the last person you kissed in sweats with no makeup and your hair a mess. You bought what you wore today in the past couple of weeks. You’d be able to name all of Santa’s reindeer. You’ve spent HOURS getting prettied up for someone. It takes you forever to pick out outfits for dates. You’ve been friends with someone who moved to a different country. Cafeteria food really is gross. You’ve given someone a hickey before. If you could, you’d start your life over right now. You’ve cried in front of the person you have feelings for. There is someone who makes you smile just thinking about them. You’ve found a friend’s mom/dad very good looking before. You’d rather live without TV than without makeup. You’d rather live without your parents than without your siblings. Someone has once told you you’re the most important person in their life. You’ve worn a matching Halloween costume with someone before. Your hair is in need of a wash right now. You know that someone has feelings for you right now. You believe you’ve met your soul mate already. You know what you’re being for Halloween already. Someone calls you cute/beautiful/etc on a daily basis. There were other people there during your last kiss. You’ve kissed someone right after they smoked pot. You’ve dated someone at work, broke up, and had VERY awkward times there. You can see some kind of liquid from where you’re sitting. You’ve been set up on a HORRIBLE blind date before. The last person you hugged is single. You’ve seen the last person you texted drunk. Your last relationship was ended pretty much mutually. You wouldn’t date someone much younger than you. You know someone but only their last name - that’s all anyone ever calls them. Your grandparents are way too nosy. You’ve talked to a huge bitch in the past 24 hours. The last person you laughed with is in love. You have blonde streaks through your hair. You often wear ripped jeans. When going out, you wear really low-cut shirts. You’ve cheated before. ^And it made you realize how much you loved your boyfriend. You’re extremely blunt. You’ve been known as a tease. You’re not a bitch unless it’s necessary. You take things really personal sometimes. If a guy screws up one time, you say you’re done. You have hair extensions or have used them before. You wear heels with booty shorts. You have out-played a player. You wear glasses at night. You’ve intentionally made a significant other jealous. ^By getting another guy’s number in front of him. You’re really short. You and your mom are really close. You have been hit by a guy. You have been hit by a girl. You stand up for your friends no matter what. After a break-up, you haven’t been able to move on for a really long time. You’ll dance anywhere at any given time. You’re obsessed with pickles. You’ve been hit on by a guy who already had a girlfriend. You’ve been fired from a job. You always speak your mind, no matter how bitchy you may seem. You find it easier to give up in tough situations. When going on vacations, you pack your shit in garbage bags instead of a suitcase. You call yourself by a nickname that has to do with a celebrity. You scream to get your point across the majority of the time. You’re always in other peoples’ business, and you don’t care. You’ve been guilty of cock-blocking before. Fun is not something you’re a fan of. I’m related to my best friend. I love getting inked. Almost every song reminds me of something/someone. I haven’t traveled much in my life. I have a dailybooth account. I hate when people act like whoever they’re around. Get fucking real. I don’t like taking showers at night. Procrastination is my middle name. I watch My Life as Liz on MTV. I recently got something back I lent to someone. I’ve been to the beach within the past week. I fell asleep watching a movie last night. I really like the band Circa Survive. I use my Twitter everyday. No one ever asks me anything on formspring. I can roll joints like a pro. I’ve been taking a lot of pictures lately. I love seeing cute guys. I don’t like it when people get drunk and call/text me. I hate when my stomach growls in a quiet room. I burp all the time, I don’t think it’s gross at all. I’m missing someone I know I shouldn’t. I watch Intervention. I need to start working out. I hate seeing someone I used to know and having to make awkward small talk. Honestly, I don’t give a shit about politics. The tattoo healing process sucks balls. I’m allergic to my pets. I need some food, pronto. I don’t obsess over celebrities. I don’t look like any celebrities. I like rap music, but I’m not all about it. Going to concerts or shows doesn’t really appeal to me. Someone recently texted me that I’ve been avoiding. I don’t really like having a boyfriend, I like being single most of the time. I hate when I see someone I knew and they completely avoid me. I look a lot different now than I did in middle school. I listen to A Skylit Drive. I watch the show Hoarders, and I’d cry if I lived in a house like that. I can easily relate to people’s situations. Every time I say or hear the word ‘situation’ I think of Mike “The Situation”. ^ I’m a fan of that on Facebook. The thought of contacts makes me want to gag. I think I need glasses. I have driven under the influence I have quit a job I have dyed my hair a completely different color from my natural I have stayed on the phone longer than 3 hours with a boyfriend I have used a Snuggie I have stayed up for more than 48 hours straight I have had a close friend turn into a complete bitch I have read the books Crank & Glass I have been utterly disgusted by what I saw in the mirror I have worn Bullhead jeans I have painted my nails neon colors I have bobbed for apples I have cried just from wanting something to happen so badly I have researched about drugs on the internet I have done more than 3 drugs I have worn a fur coat I have lived in the same country my whole life I have spent an entire day and night on the computer I have stayed up late working on something for school I have creeped on Facebook/MySpace I have had a fake ID I have rode around late at night with a bunch of friends, drunk/high I have worn clogs I have worn Uggs I have eaten banana pancakes I have owned stuff from Bath & Body Works I have worn a scarf during the spring or summertime I have hooked up with a random guy while on vacation I have eaten fried Twinkies I have eaten fried Oreos I have ridden a roller coaster I have woken up with a really dry or sore throat I have hiked a mountain I have rock climber I have gone skydiving I have pretended to like something I didn’t I have pretended to like someone I didn’t I have been nice just to spare feelings I have jogged 2 miles straight I have stayed in my pajamas all day long I have failed an important class I have drank something other than champagne out of a champagne glass I have watched ‘80s TV shows I have beaten a high score on a video game I have been taller than 5'4” I have carved my name into something. I have played at a playground over the age of 13. I have gotten a ‘brain freeze’ I have been to Cabela’s I have been to Ron Jon’s Surf Shop I have written longer than a 5 page paper I have intentionally started a fight with someone I have seen a comedian live I have seen my favorite band live I have organized everything in my room before I’m on the phone. I’m on the phone with a guy friend. My hair is wet. My hair wrapped up in a towel, turban-style. I just got out of the shower. I’m in the living room. The TV is on in the room I’m in. A reality show is currently on. I have a hair tie around my wrist. I am not texting anybody. I’m wearing pajamas. I’m not listening to music. I’m on a laptop. My laptop is plugged in and charging. My toenails are painted. My fingernails aren’t painted. I’m wearing deodorant. I’m drinking water. My cell phone is within reach. I’m not hungry. I’m not sleepy. I’m thinking about someone. I laughed within the past few minutes. I’m on my period. My house smells like coffee. I’m wearing a white shirt. My pants are plaid pajama pants. I’m not wearing socks. I’m not wearing a bra. I’m not wearing a bracelet or necklace. Something on my body itches. I’m procrastinating. I have a zit on my back. I’m sitting on the sofa. My mom is within my line of vision. The light is on in the room I’m in. I should be doing something else. I should be doing school-related stuff. Today is Thursday. It’s night time. It’s dark outside. I’m thirsty. I’m sitting in a comfortable position. My ankles are crossed. My hair isn’t in a ponytail. There’s a song stuck in my head. I’m looking forward to something. My lips aren’t chapped.

#survey #surveys #quiz #bored #questions

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bulletproof-fantasies · 7 years ago

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Post Its (Jimin Oneshot)

Pairing: Jimin/Reader

Idea Started: September 2016

Words: 3285

Posted: August 31st 2017

Author’s notes: For Megan, because I know how much you love your dorky boy in his big sweaters. I hope Seoul is amazing for you. <3 @jiminlush

In your own experience, college could be summed up in a matter of six statements...

1) Too much alcohol and not enough studying.

2) I could buy a salad but cup noodles are only 99¢.

3) What day of the week is it again?

4) Wait, this isn’t my class…

5) I thought that assignment was due next week...fuck.

6) I haven’t slept in three days.

No matter how used to the college environment you had become these statements rang true every year and throughout the year. Rather it was that you made the choice to go to a Friday night party at some guy’s house (who you only vaguely remembered being introduced to in chemistry) or it was that you had a grand total of $9.57 in your bank account and skipping a meal looked wise. It didn’t matter which scenario it was, every year was the same. Every year you survived off of the worst processed food imaginable and forgot assignments were due. Every year, at least once, you would walk into a class, sit down and realise that you were actually not in that class. And then you’d realise you were in the entirely wrong building but you hadn’t noticed because you hadn’t slept in two days. The only difference between your first year and this one was that eventually along the way these things became less embarrassing and more natural. And that happened for everyone. It was just a factor of the environment.

But not this year. No, this year, your final year, things were going to be different. You wanted to pull your marks up and you were going to stay on top of things, no matter how many neon coloured post-it notes it took. It was time to get serious.

You just wished your project partner had the same ambitions.

You met Park Jimin three years ago during your first semester. Unlike yourself, he was incredibly good at socialising, floating from group of friends to group of friends and never making a single person he talked with feel neglected. He always texted back. You didn’t know how he kept up. You’d forget to text back for days sometimes. And then there was his sheer amount of Facebook friends.

You weren’t sure how, but somehow he managed to keep up with all 852 of them. Just looking at the amount of chat conversations he had going wherever he went on the website made your head spin a bit. You didn’t know how he did it. In comparison, you sported a measly ninety-seven Facebook buddies and a good thirty of that number were extended family and friends of your family. But perhaps that is why you always liked being around Jimin.

He was always so...uplifting. No matter what kind of mood you were in, if you talked to him, you left the conversation feeling happy. And that was probably a pretty good indication as to why he had so many friends in the first place. He was kind to his core and willing to pay for drinks. He never got irrational or jealous about someone not wanting to hang out. Jimin was the true definition of social butterfly and you were unsure if he ever had to feel lonely.

However, while Jimin had fantastic skills in socialisation, to the point where you encouraged him to think about becoming a salesman of some kind, he lacked the same sort of skills in concentration and focus. This often led to you helping him with his assignments and homework. Acting as a guide of sorts, though there was times you were tempted to push him out of in front of the computer and write the assignment for him. You never gave into them, but you had come close a couple times.

You couldn’t deny that there was a small part of you that wondered if perhaps that is why you are friends. Maybe he likes being close with the girl who helps him do all his schoolwork. You were not sure if this was a good or a bad thing, but at least he valued you for something.

You were sure that it couldn’t be for your personality. Your other friends like to taunt you by commending that upon occasion, a wall would hold up conversation better than you did. It happened whenever you had your brain stuck on something. You tended to hyper focus and when you did that, anyone could forget trying to get your attention until it subsided naturally.

Perhaps this is why you made the perfect pair of friends. Where you lacked in social skills, Jimin made up in and introduced you to people. He even scored you a few one-night stands over the years, though the intention had always been just to introduce you to a new friend.

Where he lacked in the traditional application of his knowledge, you helped him figure out how to get the words on paper. While sometimes it had him so frustrated he’d turn into a grouch who really needed to be fed, he always managed to get to the end of the assignment with your help. The friendship had been harmonious from the beginning and it had made some of the harder parts of the year easier to bear.

However, this was your first project together. While in the past you two hadn’t traditionally shared a lot of the same labs or seminars, you managed to luck out with this time and of course he had immediately sat next to you upon the announcement of a joint assignment. Well, you figured that it being a matter of luck was subjective here because while Park Jimin had been your good friend for three years, you still hadn’t a clue how to get him in a good zone of focus. And unfortunately, unless you were to do your half and them coach him through his, you needed to. Your joint assignment was due in two weeks.

…

“We have to focus, Jimin,” you told him for the sixth time as you browsed through your notes, flipping to look for the sticky note that said some little piece of info about Niobium on it. You knew you had written it on one of neon blue post its but unfortunately there were a rough estimate of something like a million blue ones.

“I am. I’m looking at the periodic table right now.”

To be fair, he was technically looking at it. If laying upside down on your bed and glancing at the chart you had colourfully drawn onto Bristol Board whilst messaging three other people on his phone counted. But it didn’t actually count. If anything, it sort of pissed you off. How dare he sit on the bed and be comfortable while you sat amongst scattered texts on the floor.

“Jimin, this is worth ten percent of our mark, please focus,” you begged as you looked up from your book and into his upside-down gorgeous brown eyes as he smiled your way, trying to soften you up.

Jimin was beautiful in that sort of way that looked like he was outside more than he was inside. Warm sun-kissed skin and dark brown hair. He was always wearing hoodies that were a bit too big for him and soft wasn’t a generous enough word to describe him. He constantly looked like somebody’s boyfriend.

It didn’t surprise you he was popular with a lot of ladies but inside it made you feel nice that he made time to be your friend too. At least he wasn’t one of those guys who would blow you off every time he found a girl to blow him. He always made time for you, even if you called in the middle of the night because you didn’t quite feel right.

“Okay, I’ll focus. You’re hair is going to turn grey if I don’t,” he said as he have you a coy smile and moved to sink onto the floor across from you. He crossed his legs and brought one of the books closer, setting his phone aside. “Niobium, right?”

“Yes,” you said as you gave him a little smile and then mouthed him a ‘thank you.’

Another fifteen minutes passed and you eventually found the little sticky note you had been looking for. You sighed with relief and copied the information as you glanced towards Jimin to see how he was doing. He was laying on his back, his head was propped up on a pillow lying on the floor, and his feet were on the bed. You sighed as you watched him chat with one of his other pretty good friends.

“Jimin…”

He tilted his head back and glanced at you curiously. Then he gave you a sheepish smile. “I’m sorry, Y/N. You know I have issues focusing. I went to look something up and then ended up talking to Tae.”

“I know...I know.” You sighed heavily but it didn’t change your decision. You held out your hand and looked into his eyes. “I know you don’t mean it, but I’m going to hang onto that for now.”

Jimin immediately pouted but he knew there was no reasoning with you. He moved his legs off the bed and flopped onto his side before he sat back up into the correct position again. He looked down at his phone and then handed it over to you before he opened his book again.

“Thank you. This project is important and we both want to do well,” you gave him a small and sincere smile before you began to concentrate again, tapping a pen on the surface of your book.

Jimin looked up at you some time later but you didn’t notice until you heard his voice come out softly. “Y/N, you’re really beautiful.”

You didn’t look up at him as you flipped a page in your notebook and typed the information into your laptop, compiling the basic information you needed before you began to really get the project rolling. “Thank you, but it won’t get your phone back.”

“It wasn’t why I said it...I just wanted you to know.”

You looked up at him then and he was giving you that really soft smile he seemed to turn your way a lot, the one that turned his eyes into crescents. You felt your face flush and then you bit your lip before you started to go through the notes again, mumbling out a ‘thank you.’

Sometimes he did this sort of thing, he’d just gave you random compliments and then that look. You wondered why, but it always seemed to be in these sort of moments when he should have been concentrating on something else. Perhaps it was just another way to distract himself.

“Can I use the post its?” He reached towards them while he asked and before you could get an answer out he was already opening your little box. His eyes passed over the mini pads of different fluorescent colours in it and he eventually picked the pink and green ones.

“Sure, but make sure you’re using them for the project, Park Jimin,” you told him in a stern tone as you glanced up at him before you began to type again.

“I am, don’t worry.”

You made a slight sound of disbelief before you began typing and outline for the assignment, which was based around conducting a few experiments. It was important you got all this done for optimal safety in the lab. You wouldn’t be allowed to proceed if your professor didn’t approve your proposal. You needed plenty of time to correct any mistakes and Jimin wasn’t really allowing for that.

In fact, despite what you told him, he was not using the post its for science. You sighed as you saw him writing little notes on them and pretty much sticking them to every surface of your room that he could. There were probably three on your mirror.

At this point you had a decision to make. You could either hound Jimin until you made him pout to new extremes and probably not get him to focus in the end or you could just do your work, leave him to his devices and then coach him through it later when you didn’t have to focus on yourself. You had to pick your battles and this wasn’t one of them.

You continued to do your work, creating the outline while he quite literally moved between every possible corner of the room. He did his his own thing; putting up post its, stopping because he wanted to try on your rings, and then making more notes to stick to unsuspecting surfaces. He even tried on a headband of yours to sate his boredom but you figured he must have decided teal and silver stripes didn’t compliment him because he took it off. When those things no longer kept his focus, he eventually laid next to you and put his head in your lap, looking up at you with his ridiculously soft brown eyes.

“Hello, Y/N.”

“Hello Jimin,” you replied as you chewed on the inside of your cheek, not taking your eyes away from the laptop to give him your full attention. In fact, the only outward signs that you acknowledged his presence were that you responded to him and the fact that you had your arm awkwardly lifted to compensate for the position of his head while you typed.

“We should take a break,” he said as he lifted his leg to bend at the knee so he could balance the pad of post it notes there. He began to write again and then placed one on your knee, giving you a cute smile after.

Knobby knees.

You glanced down at it and then rolled your eyes a little bit. To start, his handwriting was nicer than yours. You had always been envious of the legibility of it. His lines were crisp and clear while the loops on letters such as ‘y’ and ‘g’ looked like something out of a pretty font rather than what a human could write. Your handwriting looked more like something a guy would write stereotypically.

“Really, Jimin?” you asked as you gestured to the note and quirked a brow.

“It’s true. They’re kind of dorky in a cute way,” he responded with slightly amusement leaking from his tone.

“My knees are cute…” you said as if you were thinking it over. You made a bit of a face and then shook your head as you began typing again. “‘Kay then.”

Jimin hummed to himself and then made another note, sitting up so it was easier to write. You were thankful because it allowed you to rest your arm on your thigh again instead of just holding it midair. This time he stuck it to your stomach and gave you another soft smile.

Soft tummy.

How could someone slightly irritate you but also be very cute at the same time? You adored him but this project was really important and you needed to get your half done so you could move onto helping him through his. It took time to do and so you just wanted to get this out of the way and he was being so distracting, although in a very sweet and oddly endearing way.

“Jimin, I love you, but I am trying to get work done here,” you said as you stuck your tongue out very slightly, a habit of concentration. You tucked your hair behind your ear and then flipped a page in your notebook, copying more words down.

“I know. But you look like you’re working too hard. It’s why I said you should take a break,” he explained as he wrote another note and put it on your side.

Beautiful curves.

You had one of those moments where you knew you had to choose your battles. So at this point, you just let him stick the notes to you. He had to get bored of it eventually, seeing as he got bored putting them on inanimate furniture. At least, you hoped he would. You might explode if he kept this up much longer.

“Just don’t acknowledge it. Don’t read the notes. Don’t make any moves or sounds when he puts them on. He’ll get bored,” you told yourself confidently as your fingertips danced across the keys of your laptop.

Jimin giggled to himself as he wrote another one and then put it on your butt. You tried not to let your eyebrow twitch despite the fact that you knew he was pleased with himself. Drawing in a long breath, you let it go.

Cute butt.

You were pretty sure you had sat through him putting at least twenty notes all over you. In fact, he had even grabbed the other colours just to make it look like you were trying to impersonate a neon Christmas tree. You were about to explode.

Taking a deep breath, you quietly closed the lid of your laptop. “Jimin.”

“Y/N,” he replied with a little smile. He reached forwards and puts another note right on your bottom lip, sticking it there.

“Oh come on, Jimin,” you sigh as you reach down and begin to take them off one by one.

Your actions only seemed to please him more as you glanced at them and read the words. You felt a blush creep onto your cheeks ad you read them and your gut began to squirm. It’s an anxious feeling and your brain keeps wondering if it’s possible that he’s playing a trick on you. Almost in a rush you keep peeling them off and reading the messages.

Beautiful curves, knobby knees, adorable freckles, soft tummy, cute butt, pretty hair, soft skin, beautiful neck, back dimples, pudgy thighs (that I want to bite), collarbones (I want to put hickies on), cute fingers (I want to bite them too)...

With every note you read, your blush got more intense and you began to feel shier. You glanced up into his eyes, almost afraid you’d see some kind of self satisfied smirk but instead you saw a very soft smile and eyes that couldn’t trick you even if he tried. Taking a deep breath, you reached for the last note on your lips and pulled it off.

Please kiss me.

“Now can we please take a break, Y/N?” Jimin asked as he reached for your hand and laced your fingers with his. He had a sort of courage to his actions that made you feel warm inside. He didn’t look away from your eyes, if anything it made you feel like he really meant the things he wrote. “I think we could focus on some other stuff for awhile.”

You swallowed and you opened your mouth but you didn’t know what to say. Overwhelmed didn’t really cover how you felt but you had the sudden thought that maybe Jimin didn’t have to look like somebody else’s boyfriend in those oversized sweaters anymore. Just maybe he could look like yours.

As if following the direction of your thoughts, he stuck one more note to you, right where your heart would be. You couldn’t decide if it was cheesy or sweet but to be honest you didn’t care really care. The action had brought that familiar tingling sensation to your stomach, like you had just gone over the big drop on a roller coaster. You reached for it and peeled it away from your shirt, reading it slowly and letting the tingling spread.

Be mine?

To be honest, you were quite fond of the way he looked in those sweaters.

FIN

#jimin #park jimin #bts #bangtan #bangtan boys #one shot #oneshot #jimin oneshot #college au #fluff #chimchim #bts oneshot #bangtan oneshot #bts one shot #bangtan one shot

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blogjmary12 · 5 years ago

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packernet · 5 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://www.packernet.com/blog/2020/01/16/packernet-podcast-keep-the-hate-coming-were-loving-it/

Packernet Podcast: Keep the Hate Coming - We're Loving It

Transcript:

8s – 1m 8s

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome, once again to the back of that podcast. I am your host and residence analyst that’s always Ryan slip check it out online packernet.com. Find me on Twitter Pack underscore that is so today. I’ve got quite a bit of things that I want to touch on some news and notes some rumors. Probably going to get a little bit Ranchi. There’s a couple different things to different people at you know, I was just talking yesterday about how you know, if I’m being honest I liked the days when the media was gushing over the Packers a lot more than I like today. I really did like that. It kind of it was it was somewhat undeserved kind of like what the Chiefs get with Mahomes and now Lamar, you know that the Golden Boy treatment that Aaron Rodgers somehow had for felt like basically his entire career up until what 2015 maybe even late cuz I think I think even as you started to decline the video

1m 8s – 1m 45s

Because you know, that’s just how they work. Nobody wants to be the first to say it and then as soon as somebody says it is like this just Avalanche. I don’t like them either. It’s just you know who can dislike him the most so, you know, that’s that’s how you get to be edgy you without actually being edgy because you didn’t want to say it for 5-10 years. Anyways, I don’t like this so much. However, I got to admit there’s something kind of nice and extra motivating about these games. You’ve already got the aspect if I really really really really really want to win and see this team in the Super Bowl is sort of like

1m 46s – 2m 46s

It hasn’t even sunk in that it’s a possibility and it’s not because I’m sure I believe thoroughly that we’re going to lose. It’s just it’s just like that that just doesn’t happen Packers don’t go to the Superbowl this certainly don’t win the Superbowl and it’s super rare and probably nod and I forget who it was and I apologize but somebody gave the visual in the Facebook group. Make sure you join the Facebook group that he could Envision Aaron Rodgers and Aries and Aries next to each other hosting the trophy and it was like one of those things that visual just made it very real and it’s like, oh my goodness this could really happen. I mean this could really actually happen but then you take the excitement of winning and the desire to win and add to it how much distain I’m developing for everybody because everybody dislikes the Packers and some of it is fine, right? You got the sports books and everything else. They’re saying the Packers have the lowest chance depending on where you look of winning a Super Bowl get it. You’ve got some stew.

2m 46s – 3m 46s

Mystic people just kind of laying out some facts, but for the most part you have very biased people that have never liked the Packers and love the fact that Aaron Rodgers is not the favorite anymore and take every opportunity. They can to remind everybody which largely is wrongly but because this is what the statistic Community now believes remind everybody that Aaron Rodgers is no longer the goat. He’s no longer even any good. He’s averaged this team is a fraud. They just can’t stop and every opportunity they get to say it they say it so that’s starting to make me angry to the point that I want them to be wrong almost as bad as I just want the Packers to win because the level of distain I have for them. Although I get it because that’s what being a fan of a different team is about. It’s still a little bit annoying. So I want to address some of that and again just some other little bit of this little bit of that. But anyways I said,

3m 46s – 4m 46s

Make sure you jump in the pack and a podcast Facebook group. That’s where the party’s at all day everyday we party and we talked about the Packers. That’s just what we do also apparently get into very serious discussions about needles in San Francisco, you know, some people tend to rant kind of like I tend to reims I can’t hate him for it. It’s it’s my life to also make sure you jump in the back of my podcast Facebook page. Thank you to all of you have sent messages. Obviously. You’ve not been getting hardly any responses. I have to go in and start working on all those responses and develop or develope responses to all the stuff you been saying to build the ultimate supercomputer. I don’t think that’s possible but it’s you know, I got all year figure this thing out. I don’t care. What else do I have to do? I pick one thing that I want to really work on this year on top of all the stuff that I’m doing and that’s one of the things I want to build. So leave me alone. What’s your New Year’s resolution push-ups get on my face. I’m building a supercomputer man Skynet Sun before the T-1000 was

4m 46s – 5m 46s

Schwarzenegger guy before the Schwarzenegger guy was the Packer. Chad Bock. You didn’t catch that and Terminator. Did you wait till Terminator 8, they’ll tell you how it all begins. If you would like to support the fact that podcast I would strongly encourage you to check out patreon.com pack underscore daddy. There is a link in the description somewhere in the link of links. You can support the show for as little as a dollar a month. It means a lot more to me than it does to you is in terms of you know, it’s more positive for me than its negative for you. I understand podcast for free, but I’m hoping that you like the value that I bring enough that you think it would be worth it to you to offer up at least a buck a month. Please consider it. I’ve had a very very good response up over $50. Which is awesome. As long as you don’t consider the fact that there are literally thousands of people that listen every day that it’s slightly less. Awesome. But still it’s good. It’s a good start and don’t forget there will be a giveaway ever.

5m 46s – 6m 29s

Single month, all you have to do is make a small donation. $1 is one entry 5 dollars is 5 entries etcetera etcetera. If you just want to win the thing straight out Super Bowl tickets are to do it. I think that’ll increase your odds substantially. So there you go something about otherwise a five-star iTunes review Stitcher review and make sure you are listening to the Packers iPod cat because the podcast broadcast on another podcast that has not called the Packers at podcast. If you don’t want to switch over that’s fine. I still get all the accounts for it. I just would like iTunes in the rest to realize that people actually do listen to my podcast. So if you wouldn’t mind subscribing to mine as well that be greatly appreciated, why don’t we take a break cuz I got a lot to talk about not a lot of time to talk about it.

6m 30s – 7m 30s

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7m 30s – 7m 53s

Offering my listeners 20% off a full bottle of cryo freeze CBD pain relief roll-on plus free shipping this discount also applies for any product site wine. Just go to omax health.com today enter promo code over time. That’s o m a x health.com and enter promo code overtime to get 20% off cryofreeze and site-wide.

7m 54s – 8m 53s

And once you’re feeling better, you don’t want to just feel better sitting on the couch. You especially don’t want to just feel better out shoveling your driveway making the pain come right on back. How about instead? We spend our February and March following our favorite baseball teams to Arizona for the Cactus League spring training. I can’t imagine a better way to spend February then out in 75 degree weather watching some baseball eating a couple hot dog hanging out with your significant other your body’s your kids and after the game getting some autographs and then buzzing over to one of the great craft breweries some great outdoor scenery and Adventures like hiking biking Jeep tours hot air balloon skydiving jet ski horseback riding and then after you’re completely famished go out and get some great Arizona cuisine cuisine as Gordon Ramsay kind of says, you know the British don’t speak too good scene. They try, you know,

8m 54s – 9m 54s

Make sure you plan your spring training get away at visit arizona.com spring training. Alright so much to do so little time. What are we talkin about? How about the fact that Luke Kuechly just retired yesterday. Can you imagine being a Carolina Panthers fan? You had a good team then it all kind of went sideways. We know what that’s like, it happened last couple years, right? Suddenly things just aren’t good anymore. We were Super Bowl Contender and then we were trash quarterbacks banged up but we’re starting over now. We get this guy rule in and it’s like he’s going to take over and he’s going to transform everything and then you find out the LSU who just won the National Championship the passing game coordinator. The guy that’s worked with Joe burrow land in the rest of that LSU crew to help them to win. The national championship is going to join Rule and help us rule the NFC South took me a second there and it you just feeling good and you know it you’re probably going to get a new quarterback. Maybe you like it. Maybe you don’t but

9m 54s – 10m 54s

It’s just it’s a new era, right? Cuz it this is a good team. We just got some work to do. We got to fix up this defense a little bit. But may we got the best running back in football? We’re going to get an electrifying quarterback in here. Take a guy like Herbert would be great somebody that doesn’t really need to be benched. But as long as he has a good Supporting Cast which which the Panthers kind of do right, they’ve got wide receivers kind of for the first time that got a great running back decent enough offensive line, like you can plug him in and just make some stuff happen and it will just focus on the defense and just hammer away at it. We’re going to be good man. We got Kuechly hang a hammer in this thing ain’t turn it down in the day that you get the news. You got a new offensive coordinator. The guy that has been like the guy on your team. One of the better linebackers of all time decides that at 28 years old with two years left on his contract. He’s going to hang it up. That’s wild by the way. This is not insignificant news to the Green Bay Packers because the Green Bay Packers are playing the Carolina Panthers at home in 2020 the Panthers

10m 54s – 11m 54s

Who had a abysmally horrible defense this past year are now without Luke Kuechly now. Who knows what’s going to happen to you know, after Gronk left, obviously, there was a total speculation that he’s going to come back. Maybe this is just stay a moment, you know as far as lacking Clarity, maybe it’s it’s injury-related and he’s he’s just really worried who knows but things change Stihl 28. He still healthy maybe is not the same Luke Kuechly was last year. He said in his goodbye message. He’s just not that same guy and he doesn’t want to play if you can’t play up to that level anymore, but maybe I mean Jared Veldheer retired now, he’s back helping us win a Superbowl but as it stands the Packers now are planning to go up against the Carolina Panthers at home without Luke Kuechly. I think the sooner we get that team the bed because the new coach and all that stuff that’s going to take some time to kind of develop that team build that locker room build up the new scheme in the new system. And I you you get those teams early enough before they really

11m 54s – 12m 54s

Get into the groove if they ever do but you catch them before they get into a Groove and that’s that’s going to work to our benefit. I also wanted to comment on something in just a little bit old news, but it’s interesting apparently and this is reported via Tony Pauline. I actually was I found this while I was doing some draft homework trying to get caught up on all the latest news and rumors and things for the draft and came across some news that apparently prior to the Vikings beat in the New Orleans Saints and then understand Tony Pauline is legit. He called stefanski to the Browns like in the same article prior to in Minnesota and the Saints game. She called it but decided the Browns number one candidate was stefanski. Anyways, he had said based on an inside source. The Minnesota Vikings are kind of tired of of Zimmer now, I’m shocked by this because the outside perspective by everybody not in Minnesota is that Zimmer’s a phenomenal code? He’s done a great job obviously is Zimmer defense is a very tough defense in the defense is what makes that team great, obviously.

12m 54s – 13m 54s

Cousins did a good job and all this other stuff, but the Zimmer defense is what makes the Minnesota Vikings in Minnesota Vikings, but in Pauline’s words Zimmer has worn out his welcome in Minnesota. Here’s the interesting thing. The report was if they lose to the New Orleans Saints Zimmer’s done and stefanski will get hired as the head coach so bad because I believe the source I do think that the ownership wants to move on from Zimmer. However, they did beat New Orleans. I can’t imagine one game like that is really going to make that big of a difference. Although I mean, of course it’s a big win but to be that good of a team to get in the playoffs and to still say if you lose to a basically the number one team arguably in the NFL then you’re no good. And it’s that’s kind of a ridiculous statement. It sounds to me like something you’d say when you kind of just want him to go but the other kind of unfortunate thing is for the Vikings. Anyway, you also lost your intended replace.

13m 54s – 14m 54s

So now what are you do you you not only beat the Saints but the guy that you were going to replace dimmer with supposedly is gone. So you don’t have a replacement. No, forget that forget. The fact that I think this whole thing is a ridiculous conversation. I don’t know what’s going on inside the organization. Maybe Zimmer has become an insufferable jerk. He feels like he runs things, you know, whatever. I don’t know. I’m just telling you what the standpoint of ownership is and in for the Vikings fans listening. I want to clarify something. I understand that. The owner has said we 100% are bringing back our GM and our head coach. We have no intention of moving up. Please understand the eagle said the same thing about two of their coaches and fired them both the same day within 24 hours. I think it was like the quarterback coach something else. I don’t know but there was a question. Are you bringing it back? You should absolutely they’re coming back within 24 hours. They were both fired. So when you get put on the spot, you know, you don’t waver on a Zimmer coming back of course is come.

14m 54s – 15m 47s

Oh, yes, definitely. You tell the media. Yes, and then you go do your job or you try to throw out some it mean that there’s really just two ways to handle it. You don’t care what the media thinks and you just say yes because it’s better for your your franchise because you don’t want to waiver on it and then keep Zimmer was Zimmer, you know in the back of his mind taking these guys are trying to get rid of me. So you just say, of course, that’s our guy or the other way to handle it is just kind of, you know, not answer the question in which case everybody fully understands. You are answering the question. So you think you’re being cute but you’re answering the question and say yes, we’re trying to get rid of them by wavering on it don’t hurt her. I should have asked you to come Sizzla Floor coming back next year. What do you think the answer you think is going to be? Well, you know we go to the media asks you I think the right thing to do is say yes, of course dumb question and then if you want to fire me fire if the media wants to call you on it just to cares.

15m 47s – 16m 47s

He made you look dumb not the other way around cuz guess what you’re going to keep asking me questions as though I’m an authority and I want to keep telling me the answers that I want to give you whether they’re true or not. Cuz I could not care any less about you and your little articles. I’ve got a team to run a multi-billion-dollar franchise to run in a little Minnesota blog doesn’t mean anything to me and I’m not going to hurt my franchise answering your ridiculously dumb questions. I don’t care about you. So again, this is just to say I fully understand he said they’re they’re intending to keep them at this point. That might be their only option i d d, you know, I don’t know maybe they like some of the other candidates that are out there be enemy McDaniels. The Ravens offensive coordinator is getting a ton of love and could be a very good option. You also have to figure that. You might be looking to get a new quarterback in the near future. So maybe you want to get it off. I think that I think this is all ridiculous. I I think this is a defensive team of talk about identity in the past and the weird thing but certain teams

16m 47s – 17m 47s

This is just have identities that last through the decades the Vikings trying to go off at doesn’t work. They win when there are defensive team same is true for the Chicago Bears. They have tried over and over and over and over with guys like Trestman and everything else trying to get an elite offense and it just never works in. The one time that they’re legitimate team is when despite the fact that they’re still trying to go off ends Vic fangio building Elite defense and there you have it this Minnesota Vikings team lives and dies with their defense the purple people eaters on through the line This is a defensive franchise. They are a smash you in the mouth kind of a team and I just I don’t I don’t know. I don’t know why they would do it, but I wanted to bring it up because it is interesting and it definitely feels like this team has kind of been flogged. It’s kind of like Luke Kuechly Jumping Ship when everything’s kind of influx. Anyway, I’ve been kind of on the fence. Anyways, you’re going to fire my code. You’re getting rid of my quarterback. Probably maybe you’re bringing in all these new people. I just you know,

17m 47s – 18m 47s

The franchise is kind of in the in the in the train in the dirt. Whatever I can think of a word out of here and you know, the Vikings are kind of going through that’s enough that they’re a bad team. But you lose your offense of coordinator your defensive coordinator your assistant GM you might look at him know, you know what since we’re getting poached and we’re losing everything. I’ve been kind of want to make some changes. Anyways, let’s just kind of make some changes until I all I’m saying is if I had to guess the dimmers going to stay if for no other reason than he met that one qualification in that they beat the Saints and the replacement is currently coaching the Browns. However, keep that in the back your mind if the Vikings don’t have a good year next year. He’s 100% gone and it’s also possible that if they could find a good enough candidate they may move on. Anyways, I mean maybe before they go out and find it offensive coordinator. Maybe they go out and find somebody and offensive coordinator to coach the team and you know, there’s a lot of good defensive coordinators floating out there. They don’t get as many looks as had head coaching jobs as offensive coordinators do so. There’s some really quality guys that are just floating. So anyways something to keep an eye on.

18m 47s – 19m 47s

Something else that was brought up kind of a long that same vein Max in the Facebook group said he is a Packer fan from Minnesota and that there is growing speculation that Stefon Diggs is permanently unhappy on an overall average Vikings roster. Now though the point of his question was as a possible we end up getting them in the in the main response at he got was that there’s no way the Vikings are going to allow him to go to the Packers. That’s probably true. However, let’s also keep in mind. He doesn’t have to come to Green Bay in order for him to benefit us if the Vikings really do it again, they’re kind of in this middle grow their kind of in a spot where if they wanted to kind of tear things down they could or they can just try to hang on just replace the vacancies go into the draft get some more quality guys and come back and Hammer it again next year. I mean there there’s still a pretty good team. Although there is that question of the ticking Time Bomb might these guys are getting a year older and a year older and all our guys that are older or under these really long contract. I don’t know maybe we do need to start doing something a little bit more dramatic a little bit more.

19m 47s – 20m 47s

Secure Kendricks the odds of him playing at this level again or basically zero, he’s never play that at that high of a level ever in his career. He’s arguably the top linebacker in all football and I’ve been dogging the guy for 4 since forever saying he’s overrated Kendrick sandbach. You certainly was November 8th of this year and you know Everson Griffen and daneel Hunter very very good. But, you know the age catches up with everybody. These guys are both in or push in 32. Neil’s obviously a lot younger. He’s got a lot of tread left but Everson Griffen. I know you got them locked up long-term, but that doesn’t mean you got a quality player locked up long-term. He’s 32 just cuz you sign them through 35 doesn’t mean you’re freezing his age. So I don’t know. I mean if it’s true that they are considering moving on from their head coach. It’s certainly true that they could be willing to move on from there. They’re wide receiver, especially if he is kind of a head case and you feel as though he’s a negative in the locker room. I don’t know that he is I mean sometimes loud guys like that are positive other teammates really like him and I think her cousin says very much cuz he’s always screaming at cousin but so is

20m 47s – 21m 47s

The receiver feelings constantly getting into space 2 so you have to cut him if that’s if you’re just worried about him his Kirk Cousins feelings and Kirk Cousins is probably gonna be gone pretty soon. Anyway, so what are you worried about that for? Anyways, that’s enough about the Vikings. But I guess here’s to hoping you know, if the offseason has been really crazy since what like 2017 when it just really went nuts and we’ve seen teams do things that you know people that have been watching football for a long time. You just think that would never happen. That’s to correct. Those things have been happening the last few years, but some of the biggest stars just randomly end up on different teams. So it’ll be interesting to watch the Vikings in the kind of gauge and see what their strategy is which for a long time has been. Let’s just retain everybody at some point. You got to assume that they’re going to try to blow it up a little bit. We’ll see what happens little bit of minor Packers news parent leave the Packers had to work out with CFL running back to Shawn Amos. No clue. If there’s any relation to Adrian Amos. However, he is a r was a Calgary stampeder and a teammate of Reggie begelton another guy that we had.

21m 47s – 22m 47s

I believe sign to a reserve Futures deal. So we’ll see what happens when it comes to a PC still doing a lot of work and it clearly they’ve been doing some work in the CFL as well. And you know, I’m not going to not get a job goop the man knows what he’s doing. So we’ll see how the last thing I want to bring up before we take a break and get into some other more. I don’t know what college visit philosophical type thing. There was a point brought up by no other than OJ Simpson that Aaron Rodgers probably still has a chip on his shoulder against the 49ers leaving aside the part where that was a very long time ago because you probably still have some kind of a chip something that OJ seems to be forgetting is that he probably has a chip had a ship on the shoulder on November 24th, when we lost 30728 probably had a chip on his shoulder when we lost of the 49ers 23 to 20 back in 2014 as well as losing twice to the 49ers the year before

22m 47s – 23m 47s

So I’m not so sure that that really holds a lot of water I bring it up just because it’s entirely possible that there’s some pack offense of her then go. Oh, yeah, he was snubbed therefore. He’s angry therefore he wants revenge do this is the third time we face it for San Francisco in the playoffs with Aaron Rodger We Roll for 2. So yeah, maybe but I’m not putting a lot on that. However, he was the one thing I will say to try to get a little bit to that bigger than Aaron Rodgers is the general theme that although the Packers haven’t been perfect. They win when it matters, I would focus little bit more on that to be honest the fact that yes, we did lose to them earlier in the regular season, but when it really matters do we have the guys on this team come up and play a good football game and again to win when it matters that’s been there Mo all year. So be very Packers ask of them to have an ugly series with the 49ers but ultimately win when it matters and to once again prove everybody wrong something they’ve been doing literally all

23m 47s – 24m 47s

Let’s take a break and then I want to get in to see how much of this other stuff we can get at. I want to start with the the first thing first. That is this Eric eager guy who is a vitriolic anti Packers Vikings fan who is trying to put on his analytics hat as he tries to dismantle the Green Bay Packers and the shocking thing is that although other people are doing a fairly good job of it. Just just laying out historical fact and letting it lie there and letting Packer fans. Overreacting look like The Crazy Ones this Eric dude is just out of his mind. So I want to kind of walk through this a little bit to matter simply means that the offense is what is most predictive and actually this game was a perfect example of that. So it’s pretty clear. He’s trying to defend something right? He’s he’s he’s not walking something back but he got called out for something dumb and he’s trying to defend it. First of all, what in the world are you talking about? Trying to defend apparently some comment he made about defense.

24m 47s – 25m 47s

Doesn’t matter which is dumb as the guy that has in a self-proclaimed way written the book on it. That’s just not true offense is more predictive of success. That’s not true. Remember what my little project was quarterback versus defense, which really is how they started off. That’s what I call it ends up being sort of what the predictive odds of winning based on your statistical points where you rank in terms of points and yards on offense and a defendant in a mathematical sense looking at every single Super Bowl winner throughout all of Super Bowl history. I looked at what the percentage odds are based on all these things and end points against which is defensive points allowed is by far the most predictive in terms of actually winning a Super Bowl 30% 30% of all Super Bowl winners have the number one overall defense. That’s just number one.

25m 47s – 26m 46s

I’ve been through all this stuff before he’s just wrong about this defense is more predictive of success know if you’re talking about maybe some other things. I I don’t know what is initial claim was but he’s absolutely wrong having a great offense is going to help you win the Superbowl but having a better defense is much more predictive and then for him to go on and say end this game was a great example of that. Excuse me, the Packers won because of their offense against the Seattle defense. Is that the claim that you’re making that’s absurd It song about the Packers five sacks Russell Wilson had a better day than Aaron Rodgers did statistically it was Aaron who it was Russell Wilson versus the Packers defense. That was the story of this game. This was not an example of that. If you go back over history the last time they played in the playoffs the Seahawks want and it was Seattle’s defense against the Packers offense. This was Seattle’s offense against the Packers defense in both cases defense came out on top two hilarious thing though. Is that his co-host

26m 47s – 27m 47s

Yeah, that’s right. And then goes on to explain how the Packers defense was really good and that the Seattle offense was really good what this game was? Absolutely. I mean we were we were told the entire in a sort of going into the game that Green Bay was more Stout up front in Seattle and they were I mean, they think pressured Wilson more than 50% of his dropbacks. But ultimately Russell Wilson and the Seahawks have gained the Packers. They made a lot of plays Wilson at 106 passer rating when pressured their yards per play We’re actually higher than their historical, you know average for the season. I think they were saying that offense is more important than defense and this game shows in the co-host goes. Yeah, that’s true. Seattle’s offense was incredible. And in fact, they played better on offense then they have all year, but the Packers defense was better. Maybe they just think Seattle one. I don’t know.

27m 47s – 28m 13s

I’m a little confused because the initial statement for mr. Eric was defense doesn’t matter the whole Cohoes comes out and says, yes, he knows offense was great Packers defense was great Packers won and to look at his face as he just sits there and watch it happen to him is hilarious Cindy goes down and tries to do damage control and explain how Green Bay’s defense actually isn’t that good? And that in fact, I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know listen to what this guy is trying to do here.

28m 14s – 28m 48s

Upoint were talking before this which is like Willie Turner Turner drops a stone cold light up in past. That’s not an example of Green Bay’s defense being great, right? It’s an example of offense dictating what happens in this game great offense is going to win out right? That’s just what happened and that offense is also going to make your defense look good, right? So Russell Wilson in this game his fatal flaw was that he held onto the ball a long time and he did not feel the pressure and Aaron Rodgers. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop stop.

28m 49s – 29m 49s

Wow, this is this is how I knew he was a Vikings fan. This is how I absolutely knew because this makes no sense Point number one offense dictates to defense. So the point you’re making is basically the the way that I’m going to be right about this is that I’m going to say offense is more important the defense and if you point out to me a good defense I’m going to say that it wasn’t actually good defense was just bad offense, which you can do in every case, except your one example is ridiculous. You gave one example of a guy dropping a pass how many other dropped passes were there? And and what are the five sacks come into play and how about the dropped interception? Can we just hand him? Can we hand Kevin King the ball since we’re just going to make stuff up. Let me ask you another question explain to me how the Tennessee Titans beat the number one ranked offense in football. How did that happen? It don’t even give me this garbage about Lamar didn’t play. Well, he threw some of the most pinpoint perfect passes I’ve ever seen in my life. He was running for his life. That is a very good offense that try to dictate a with but loss.

29m 49s – 30m 35s

To a better defense because the old adage that defense wins championships has kind of been true for a while. If you don’t have a good defense, you don’t have yourself a Super Bowl the last time a team won. The didn’t have a top-10 defense was the 2013 Ravens and I tell you right now with 100% certainty that was a top-10 defense by the time they hit the playoffs and Ray Lewis said guys. I just need one more the last time a team won Super Bowl without a top-10 defense or offense. 2016 Bronco that offense was not good at all. The quarterback was ranked 39th about the number 4 ranked scoring defense in the number one defense in terms of yarded and know their quarterback didn’t get better in the postseason. He was the same guy that couldn’t hardly do any of it. At least physically this it this is such.

30m 36s – 31m 36s

Ridiculous nonsense trying to say that despite the fact that it was actually the Packers defense that one and then the Seahawks offense that lost another what’s a good offense force a good defense and the defense with the way you twist. This is by actually saying the the Seahawks offense wasn’t good. The guy just laid out the statistics. It was a very good offensive performance and Russell Wilson played out of his mind and a know he held on the ball too long. I wonder why genius you think maybe it’s cuz nobody was open because you know defense, what are you talkin about? Why are you doing this the reputation of Pro Football Focus is going in the tank. Every time you open your mouth PFF is all about Advanced analytics. It’s about statistics is supposed to be about facts right that the even her grading scale is based on a very strict criteria of factual information and you got this guy flapping his gums sing the dumbest crap I’ve ever heard of my life offense dictates to defense a good defense.

31m 36s – 32m 36s

Is nothing more than a bad offense. What are you talkin about? This these words have never been spoken in the history of the universe ever accept by this Vikings fan who forgets that he’s on on an actual broadcast and his hatred of the Packers has so consumed him that he can’t even form a coherent thought he is. So Lowe’s to give the Packers any credit that he’s essentially saying that the Seahawks just their offense just fell apart. The five sacks just kind of happened Russell Wilson held onto the ball because he just felt like it not because nobody was open but because he felt like it despite the fact we saw the replays in the coverage and nobody was open and there was nowhere to go with the ball for not going to give Packers any credit this this this is exactly the problem and I don’t I don’t think we’re going to have time to get to my other thing. Maybe we’ll talk about it tomorrow. I don’t have a problem with the analytics Community. But but this is no different than than the end in the political realm there statistics and there is evidence for just about anything that you want to prove and when you get people with enough

32m 36s – 33m 36s

They’ll try to use all this stuff to basically paint the picture that just isn’t so and this is not even a coherent looking picture. This isn’t even using statistics or anyting. This is just a guy that’s lost his mind either. He’s lost his mind. He’s never had one. I don’t know. I don’t know who this guy is. I’ve never heard him speak before but this is dumb and it’s not just cuz he’s talking about the pack of this is the end of this is a stance that he’s taking that offense is more important the defense an example of a defense beating out the offense. It’s because the offense didn’t do what it’s supposed to do that’s called circular logic my friend. That’s not how this works. That’s not how anything works. If you’re listening to this and you want I can let you borrow my thirteen-year-old daughters introduction to logic book. It’ll maybe help you work through this a little bit. She’s done with that when she’s moved on to intermediate logic so you can borrow the the intro to logic book if you if you want it seems like you you might need it but the but the but that’s what that’s what gets me so frustrated about this because there are people that are just being honest.

33m 36s – 34m 36s

I don’t have any problem with Vegas giving better odds the 49ers again. I trust Vegas because Vegas is just all they care about is money. I trust a greedy capitalist because they just care about money there a biased they’re not willing to to to lose money to get their way of Vikings fan working at a casino setting a betting line is not going to move the line to sort of hurt the Packers fans feeling because they just care about money and so I can trust them doesn’t mean they’re right but they’re going to take all the available information which is the other thing I wanted to talk about but we don’t have time is in a how much how much of the stuff that we can see accounts for the whole picture. That’s sort of a another question that will try to talk about tomorrow because some of the analytics people seem to think that all the information we have is all the information we need and my ability to take the information and paint the correct picture is is 100% accurate. So I am all-knowing and that’s that’s when you get to be obnoxious. I love analytics. I love none.

34m 36s – 35m 36s

The love playing with stuff because it provides a little bit of context. It paints a picture but the actual Beauty and football I’ll give you the end of the story tomorrow. I’ll just ruin it is the fact that we don’t know anyting the fact that there isn’t a supercomputer that’s going to tell us who wins the Super Bowl because there will never be a super computer that can tell us that because there is an unknown quantity to the human element of football that will always remain unknown that at that can’t ever be no that is the part about football that makes football special statistics will never be able to touch that part of football ever until some of these people are just wildly speaking out of turn and I’m to the point now that anytime I see it. I’m just going to try to come swing it if you want to say you think the 49ers and I went I don’t care that’s fine. You should think that if I wasn’t a pack of Five Nights at 49ers going to win and I don’t need the other game. I don’t know. How do I run things Chiefs? I’m kind of leaning Titans a little bit same way. I was leaning Titans against the Raven cuz you have these wildly good offense is going up against a team that has a rat that is just a solidly, you know steady team.

35m 36s – 36m 36s

You don’t like I go for the study Team every time it was steady Patriots looking team versus team that let a team score 24 points in a quarter and then came back and scored like 30 or three touchdowns in 3 minutes. That is the epitome of volatility. Anyways, that’s neither here nor there point is I have no problem with Packer fans saying I think we’re going to lose that I’ve gotten so many messages saying I’m not feeling good about this. I don’t think we’re going to win that doesn’t bother me letters are a good team. Even if they weren’t there’s no guarantees in football, which is another thing that the analytics Community doesn’t want to look at. They look at the fact that the Packers almost lost the Lions save their for their garbage. Why because your supercomputer said if they were good, they would have blown him out of the water. Your supercomputer is stupid and I hate the fact that I am at war with the analytics Community because I feel like these are my people. I’m the one that’s been taking the the arrows for PFF for 2 year haven’t talked about how we can go back up in this and this guy is not the embodiment of what PFF is. I don’t know who he is. I don’t know why he’s there. I don’t know who liked who gave him a microphone.

36m 36s – 37m 36s

Speaking anything factual or even using what is going on with Twitter do this is ridiculous the stuff that’s trending is just get out of here. I got to get off here stuff popping up like why is what anyways, so there’s a lot more I want to talk about but, you know time constraints and whatnot. I know. It’s only 36 minutes in but I got to go to work speaking of a couple things everyone. Don’t forget patreon if everybody listening decides to give me a dollar a month. I can start working on my sales pitch to my wife to quit my job. It won’t work, but I’ll start I’ll try secondly on a slightly more serious note, although I would seriously appreciate that regardless of what happens with the Green Bay Packers in a few weeks. The season is over. Let me encourage you because there’s a lot more listeners now than there have been over the past year because of how much popularity with the Packers and their the playoffs and all that. Let me encourage you to please stick around after the season is over if you need a couple days to recoup after a loss if there is a loss, that’s fine. But but please come back.

37m 36s – 38m 36s

Because I’ll tell you what the offseason is when things get fun with the draft coming up with free agency coming up. This this is one of my favorite times of the year. In fact that the Packers won in the playoffs. This would already be my favorite time of the year. It’s the time when we get to dream as Packer fans about what can be what might be to look at the prospects to look at the free agents. And then once we get them to talk about what they might be able to do for the offseason is the time to dream about what could be it’s also that the best time to go back and really digging deep into what the Packers were. Not just what they can be but what they really were in to theorize and that’s what I love the most the regular season is not my favorite time to podcast it’s easy because everything is laid out for you, but it almost kind of gets monotonous is the same thing at the same schedule as it’s just but you got to hit on these points so I can’t get away from it. Even on a daily podcast you get your routines in your ritual. I like the offseason the offseason is when the fun happen, so, please let me encourage you to at least stick around for

38m 36s – 39m 12s

Weaker for 2 weeks just to see if if I’m lying to you and if you don’t love it, and if you’re not getting some inside, so you never thought you would and if you’re not enjoying the offseason by all means going to the football hibernation, and we’ll we’ll see you again in August, but I promise you this offseason going to be a lot of fun. I’m still planning on doing daily. I did it daily last year didn’t think I could but I made it and I fully intend to do it again. So that’s my pan. I’d love to see the numbers increase in the offseason instead of decrease. Anyways, you folks have ourselves a fantastic day. It’s us against the world, and that’s exactly how it needs to be. I will talk to you tomorrow. Have a good one. Bye. Bye.

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absofrutely · 5 years ago

Text

Online Persona

At first I was against a voice-activated device with no graphical user interface, a vocal opponent even. It wasn’t until an Amazon Echo Dot device was shipped to my work (addressed to me!) by mistake that I first thought about installing the device in my apartment. Apparently, there was another Andrew Williamson on the 5th floor in my office, but the delivery guy mistakenly delivered the package to the 4th floor, and I wasn’t feeling generous, so I opened up my mystery box.

Setting up the Echo wasn’t seamless. Since the Echo was tied to the other Andrew Williamson’s Amazon account, it wouldn’t activate as the other Andrew reported the device lost or stolen after not receiving it. Amazon support wasn’t any help either since I couldn’t answer any of Andrew’s security questions to unlock his account. They told me that I could ship the device back to Amazon (no) or I could use the device as a paper weight, but it would never be activated as an Amazon Echo. Shocked by the finality of that statement, and tired of all the hoops to jump through, I exchanged the Echo by swapping it out with one that I bought from and returned to Best Buy.

At last, I finished setting up the device. I linked it to my Spotify, ordered a Philips Hue smart light starter kit, got some Belkin WeMo smart electric switches, and splurged on an Alexa-compatible iRobot floor vacuum. I wanted to outfit my apartment with a Nest thermostat and a Nest camera, but my apartment didn’t have a central heating system, and setting up a Nest camera in a studio apartment seemed wasteful. Mainly, I just felt like spending money, and was frustrated that I couldn’t.

I started out easy with the basics, setting a timer, asking Alexa what time it was, and playing “The Luckiest” by Ben Folds on Spotify. Within the Alexa app on my Android phone, I could choose my preferred news source, so I chose NPR. Whenever I asked Alexa what was on the news, it’d feed me the latest NPR headlines. I was pretty impressed. I could see myself listening to the news while I ate my greek yogurt and granola in the morning.

Over the next couple of weeks, interacting with Alexa became more natural, as I frequently asked for the weather before I chose my outfit for the day. Our conversations weren’t much of a dialogue, but more of a one-sided inquisition.

I couldn’t be sure if it was the latest software update or something I had enabled in the app, but for some reason, Alexa started responding to me by name, having recognized my voice. “It’s 9:41pm, Andrew” it would reply. I just assumed that it had some sort of built-in voice training feature that could distinguish my voice. That, or it was possible that Alexa was connected to my Amazon account, which knew my first and last name. Either way, I was taken aback when Alexa addressed me by name.

I asked Alexa, “What does my voice sound like?”

She replied, “What would you like me to say?”

My phone lit up - a notification from Alexa to input my desired text.

Within the Alexa app, I typed in, “Hello, my name is Andrew Williamson, and I’m a proud dog owner.”

After hitting the submit button, I was shocked to hear my own voice. I entered in a couple more paragraphs of nonsense. It was perfect. It captured the nuances of my speech, especially intonations and even my quirky way of pronouncing “scenario” (‘sin-NARH-EE-oh’ instead of ‘sin-NAIR-EE-oh’). My heart rate quickened - it must have been the hundreds of hours of voice training.

That got me thinking - is it possible to reduce a human being to an amalgamation of complex formulas and algorithms? I had always thought my voice was unique, although I hated hearing it in recordings. The voice was one thing, but how about the nuance of a personality, the very thing that made us all human? I thought about how sad it would be if an algorithm could accurately capture the essence of someone’s humanity; either it’d be a really complex formula or a really simple personality.

Though, if something was really able to capture the totality of a human, as best as it could, then we’d be able to live multiple lifetimes if we recreated the world around us in the same simulation. If we were able to insert ourselves into key inflection points within our lifetimes, we could eliminate the what-ifs because we could speed up the simulation to see the 5, 10, 20-year consequences of one decision. A life with no uncertainty, a life that was properly vetted before it was lived. A perfect life with no missteps, no unpredictable traumatic accidents. Not necessarily a pre-determined life, but being informed of a smarter way to live.

On the flip side of things, the model needed to account for everything, including all other human beings, living creatures, inanimate objects, and naturally occurring phenomena, like weather and natural disasters. Without perfect knowledge, a simulation would always be flawed. Informative perhaps, but ultimately flawed.

It dawned on me that someone or some entity might be trying to create a perfect model of the world, especially with so much information being captured nowadays. Nest cameras, Amazon Echos, Google Homes, devices that are always listening, video conferencing, Instagram, Facebook, Skype, Tinder, TikTok, YouTube. The list goes on. More inputs, more information to train a more perfect model, if the information was consolidated and centralized! I wiped a bead of sweat off of my brow carefully, making sure my tinfoil hat stayed put.

Digging deeper in the settings screen of the Alexa app, I enabled the permissions for Alexa to track all types of data inputs that would build a robust model of me. In addition to what Alexa observed organically, I could upload pictures and videos, connect Alexa to Gmail and Facebook to capture all information that lived on those platforms, or manually upload anything else I’d like it to know about me via a CSV file.

Selfishly, I thought about how I could personally benefit from my online persona. GDPR. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was the answer. I thought about my online presence, the different platforms that I’ve used over the years, and the information that they had on me. I’d pose as a European and write into each company asking for a data-subject access request, which compelled each company by law to send me a data dump of all the information they had on me, and I’d upload it to Alexa by sending the file to [email protected] much like I could send e-books to my Kindle via a special email address. So easy! I thought.

It was reminiscent of that one Black Mirror episode, “Be Right Back” where a grieving widow created an artificial husband based on his social media profiles and his text message history. The main difference was that I had embellished my artificial likeness with a data dump of all Wikipedia articles written to create a better and smarter me, so to speak.

Alexa was also compatible with an app called If This Then That (IFTTT) which allowed the user to automate certain workflows depending on user-defined triggers. One very basic example was the ability to change the color of my smart lights to violet as soon as I started playing music. Stuff like that. But the app also supported more complex logic that was user-customizable - given that information, I plotted my next move. I had Alexa listen into my work calls and record my screen over the next few months of work. Alexa started learning my day-to-day tasks, the names, voices and faces of the people I worked with, and the different tools that I used to do my job as a Senior DevOps engineer.

One Saturday night, I called my boss tearfully and told him that I was diagnosed with fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, or FOP, a rare disease that caused muscles, tendons, and ligaments to turn into bone spontaneously. Eventually, my joints would be frozen in place and I’d be completely immobile. At some point, I’d have to choose a body position to spend the rest of my days.

He was speechless, but his normally stoic demeanor eventually broke down. As he choked back tears, he expressed his condolences.

I told him that due to my condition, I’d appreciate the ability to work remotely 100% of the time.

He agreed enthusiastically, promising to support me in any way.

Using IFTTT, I was able to clone instances of my Alexa persona, so I booted up a simulation of myself, but modified some parameters to deteriorate my appearance and gait. For good measure, I multiplied the depression metric by 1.25 and in the preview mode, the pain behind my eyes intensified, while the corners of my mouth curled downwards. A couple gray hairs sprouted up at my temples, the laugh lines turned into gashes, eroded by tears from hundreds of sleepless nights. It’d be perfect.

My voice followed suit, quivering and breaking 50% more than usual. Due to the ossification of my joints, any type of movement would be accompanied by a painful wince and a grunt for effort. No one would be the wiser during my meetings, which were held via video conference. Automating my own job was a success, but I craved more.

I created four more virtual instances of myself, without the debilitating disease, and had them scrape job postings on LinkedIn and Glassdoor, making sure to filter for remote jobs only. Within seven days, I had 125 job offers to choose from, and I booted up 121 more avatars to accept them all.

With income from 126 jobs, including my original DevOps job, I could finally breathe. In the mornings, I woke up at 9:30am, hand-ground some Sumatran coffee, and made some steel cuts oats, the non-quick kind that took 20 minutes to simmer.

Over breakfast, I finished another Murakami short story, called “Tony Takitani,” which was about a Japanese illustrator who fell in love with a woman was addicted to buying dresses but she ends up getting killed in car accident, and the illustrator is left with an empty house full of dresses. His father soon dies after, he forgets what his wife’s face looks like, and he ends up by himself, lonely in a large house.

I had suspected that the story would end that way. That’s the arc that all Murakami stories followed: a passive male protagonist who meets a life-changing female character, there’s some glimpses of hope or happiness, but the main character ends up alone, staring off melancholically into the distance into the sea, usually on an overcast day. No happy endings, and not really much of a resolution. And after finishing each book or short story, I felt lonely as well, not because the story was sad, but perhaps a stark reminder that life isn’t neatly wrapped up when it’s time to close the cover of the book, which the opposite of nearly every book that I had read. The hero gets the girl, a cathartic confession of love, the villain gets caught, the town gets saved, and everyone’s lives are better off than they were before.

To shake off the gloom, I ran along the coast for around an hour until heading back home. After toweling myself off, I checked my email. Scrolling through the hundreds of emails, my eyes widened when I saw an email subject stuck out to me: Congratulations for being nominated for a Pornhub Award: Performer of the Week. The email itself looked legitimate, had no misspellings, hovering over the links took me to the actual website, not lookalike phishing links, and I confirmed that it sent from the actual Pornhub domain.

The category that I was nominated for was “best male solo performance.” My head felt completely numb. I already knew what happened, but couldn’t bear to confirm it. I clicked into the link, and on the screen, I saw my own face staring back at me. “SultryCommando” was the username, and under “Uploads” I saw a list of 37 videos, titled with some of the most click-baity names. I had to watch at least one. I picked “Pizza Delivery Surprise!! WATCH TIL THE END,” which had 2.4 million views.

There was cheesy music and I saw a video of myself in tight cutoff jeans waiting expectantly for a pizza delivery very obviously - I saw my virtual self glance at his watch and tap his foot impatiently, mumbling something about punishing the pizza guy for being late. However I noticed his (my) devilish smile as he uttered those words. Oh god, I thought. Fast forwarding a little bit, the pizza guy finally rang the doorbell. Squinting a little, I quickly realized the pizza guy was still me. There were two of me in the same video and they were about to interact. The simulations must have discovered each other (but how?!) and started working together. I slammed my Macbook shut.

No. But I had to confirm. Flipping open my laptop, I scrolled to the middle of the video, and with much hesitation, the end. After watching two sweaty bodies collide with one another for almost 20 minutes, I felt sick, but also angry and impressed that Alexa was able to infer what my genitals looked like with 90% accuracy.

But my success as a porn star was only one of many accolades I’d receive. Surprisingly, most of the simulations gravitated towards social media influencing, with millions of followers on YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch. Remembering that there were 125 job offers signed, I wondered what happened to all of the legitimate jobs that they had gotten. I did some more digging and found that the simulations outsourced their jobs to another simulation they had written within their own simulation. Of course, the simulations didn’t know they were in actual simulations - or did they? If that was the case, then wasn’t there a high chance that I was a simulation as well, but just one level up?

The money they made funneled all to me and I couldn’t speak to whether or not the simulations had a real consciousness or if they were computer programs designed to optimize an assigned task.

The phone rang, and kept on ringing for the next two hours. I had concerned friends call to tiptoe around the subject of me being a porn star, extended family members who wanted to subtly reintroduce themselves in my life due to my Youtube fame, and my boss, who told me that I was fired for lying to him. I didn’t blame him, as my frail videoconferencing demeanor was a far cry from my virile, dominant, but sometimes flamboyant online persona. That, and he had also probably seen my Alexa-created genitals and couldn’t bear to look me in the eyes anymore.

Amidst the fabulous riches, the crumbling social life, and the unbridled fame that was tainted with a bit of social ostracism and cautious distance from curious and sometimes gawking onlookers, I felt unsettled. I could never live up to the zany online personas of my alter egos, and when someone alluded to a video that I had supposedly created, I’d be puzzled. It was like being mistaken for one of my 125 identical twin (well, not twin) brothers.

I grew anxious and falling asleep became harder and harder. On one particular night, I had a panic attack where it felt like I couldn’t breathe. Doubled over, wheezing, and clutching my chest, I yelled at Alexa to play “PornGrooves Vol. 3” on Spotify to calm me down. As my breathing steadied and my heart rate slowed back down to normal to the beat of the smooth jazz in the background, I wondered where it had all gone wrong.

Truth be told, I didn’t even want an Amazon Echo in the first place, but only set it up because I thought I’d fall behind from a technological perspective if I didn’t step into the world of smart devices. My coworkers talked incessantly about the convenience of their wifi-enabled sous vide cookers, bragged about installing smart locks and the novelty of their Ring doorbells on their front doors, but for me, I went home to an abusive father with an alcohol problem who opened an $18,000 line of credit in my name.

When I spoon-fed him, he’d berate me from his wheelchair and slap the spoon out of my hand, spraying split-pea soup on the linoleum floor. I was used to his fits of rage and his hurtful words: “Idiot. Your lack of ambition was what killed your mother. If you were a better son, she’d still be around.” I brushed him off, long immune to his babbling.

I wheeled him out for walks first thing in the morning and when I got home, I made sure to take him out again before it got too dark. I’d shampoo his hair as he sat on the plastic lawn chair in the bathtub. He made sure to tell me that I was a piece of shit who wouldn’t ever amount to anything.

My two brothers had broken all ties with Dad years ago, leaving me holding the bag. I should have reported him for identity theft and called the credit bureaus to clear my name. But out of love, I couldn’t.

Out of love, I continued paying the minimum payments for a credit card that I didn’t own, but was technically in my name.

Out of love, I automated my job and ruined my life so I could send him to a proper home where he could get 24 hour care.

Spending money on smart devices was the only thing that I ever did for myself, the closest thing that resembled a hobby - my form of self-care.

Two weeks ago when the paychecks came rolling in, I thought, “We don’t need to live like this anymore.” Excitedly, I went to go tell my father the good news.

He was in his favorite brown easy chair near the window, where he got the most natural light.

“Dad, wake up! We can finally move out of here.”

I took a look at his iPhone that he held in his right hand. The volume was low, but it was still playing one of my Pornhub videos. Realizing that he had found out about me, I took a step back, which was when I saw the empty bottle of sleeping pills in his other hand.

He had told me he didn’t want a funeral, although I doubt anyone would have shown up anyways. I felt numb, not really knowing what to feel. I was heartbroken that he was gone, but guiltily at the same time, relieved by the absence of his toxic control over me. I wanted so badly to hit a reset switch.

A month later, I moved out of that apartment and bought a modest house down the street instead. This time, I bought a Ring doorbell and some Nest smart cameras.

One Sunday afternoon, the Ring app on my phone sent me a notification that someone was at my door. Opening the door, I stared down into the face of my father, who was still in a wheelchair.

“Andrew, you said you’d always take care of me!” he croaked.

Speechless, I took a step back into my home. I looked down, expecting to see the new hardwood that I spent days installing, but instead saw the yellowing linoleum of my old apartment kitchen. It was my old apartment again, furnished just the way I had left it. Before I moved out, I told the landlord to donate everything. To get my security deposit back, I even did a walk-out with him when the apartment was empty!

There was no way. I had seen my father’s casket lowered down into the earth.

Frantically, I checked my phone. The Alexa was app was gone. I searched on Google for Amazon Alexa. Zero results. I scoured my apartment for any smart devices. Nothing. Alexa didn’t exist in this plane of existence.

I lunged for my kitchen knife, but it disappeared right before I could grasp it. In one motion, I opened my window and leapt through the screen, but there was no free fall. I found myself crumpled into a heap back on my kitchen floor.

Someone was toying with my life. Free will and choice was an illusion. This was some Harlan Ellison shit. For reasons why I couldn’t understand, perhaps for someone’s sick enjoyment, I was destined to spend the rest of my days spoon-feeding my father in a dingy apartment. Maybe I went off the rails in someone else’s simulation. Wasn’t serving my purpose and they had to set me back on course.

That night, when I was bathing my father, I couldn’t remember much of anything anymore.

What was I thinking about again? This was normal. In fact, my life couldn’t be more perfect.

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